Out of Doubt
by DarkElements10
Summary: -Sequel to Mystic Melody- They thought that their adventures were over, that their powers were gone. They thought that they had restored the balance between the two worlds, but they were wrong. Now Bailey and her friends are going on an even bigger adventure to get rid of the presence that has been plaguing them once and for all BaileyxCodyxOC ZackxOC TapewormxMax OCxOC
1. PROLOGUE

**Out of Doubt**

**By: Riley  
**

**Summary**** – Sequel to Mystic Melody. They thought that their adventures were over, that their powers were gone. They thought that they had restored the balance between the two worlds, but they were wrong. Now Bailey and her friends are going on an even bigger adventure to get rid of the darkness once and for all.**

* * *

"RUN!"

Cody Martin's throat ached with the force of his scream as he turned on his heels and pelted back the way he came. Water splashed in all directions as his feet pounded over the water logged concrete. He ducked his head low, making sure that it didn't kiss the top of the tunnel as it had when he entered the tunnel the first time. He even had the second head growing to prove it. Cody's breathing became labored as he ran as fast as he could, running behind his friends as they had trailed behind him earlier.

Feeling heat on his back, Cody looked over his shoulder and saw the rush of fire had turned the corner and was heading towards them at an alarming speed. Much faster than he had anticipated. The tunnel started to glow orange as the fire continued to chase them.

He looked forward and noticed that his friends, although they were running as fast as they could, were starting to slow down. He cursed under his breath, willing himself to keep pumping his legs, but he knew it wasn't worth it.

"Zack!" He called.

Ahead of him, his twin brother turned around and the two locked eyes, both knew what they were going to do in that instant. Cody concentrated hard on his pace, to make sure that it was just right. When he was ready, he snapped his arms out in front of him and leapt forward as wings slid out of his back. With one downward stroke, he shot forward and grabbed the waist of his friend in front of him. Holding on tightly, his momentum from his wings continued to carry him forward at a high speed.

The rush of fire continued to chase them, licking at Cody's heels, until they blasted out of the tunnel and up into the air. Cody slowly brought himself to a stop, looking over at Zack as the two gently hovered in the air, watching as the fire dissipated.

"Cody, you can put me down now." Cody looked at his friend, Riley Jackson, and smiled a little. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she was looking at him patiently. "Move any slower and you'll be a sitting duck." She reminded her friend.

"Come on," Zack flew over to Cody, Riley's twin, Rhuben, in his arms. "I think we'll be safe for the moment over here." He nodded his head to the side before gently gliding down to the ground, setting their friends down. "Is everyone else ok?"

"Yeah, we're here." Crystal Manning said as she, Patrick Jackson, Noah Jackson, Sydney Jackson, Max Montgomery, and Tapeworm Michaels walked out of the bushes. "We were waiting on standby, just in case you were attacked on the way out."

"You didn't find anything?" Max asked, her eyebrows lowering in frustrating as she started to pace.

"No," Cody tilted his arms and allowed Riley to step onto the ground before his wings disappeared. "We didn't get far enough before they detonated a bomb."

"Who would have thought that Core would have been smart enough to even think of getting rid of us with a bomb?" Tapeworm said as he shook his head. He gave a half smile. "It's kind of ironic if you really think about it."

"Yeah, I'm busting a gut." Rhuben said as she crossed her arms over her chest. Her blue eyes narrowed as a light breeze moved through the trees. They all knew that when it was quiet, that was when they were the most likely to be attacked and that they needed to stay on their toes. She turned to Zack, the unofficial leader of their group and waited for his word on what to do.

Zack, knowing that that's what everyone was waiting for, let out a sigh as he rubbed his hands together. He looked around the clearing before tilting his head back and looking at the sky, his face being illuminated by the light of the nearly filled moon. He made a grunting sound under his breath as he continued to look around.

_If we don't get this done in the next few days, we're going to have even more problems on our hands. _He thought to himself, suddenly feeling anxious

"Alright guys," he finally spoke up, turning to address his friends. "We're going to have to try and find a different way to get in there." He cracked his knuckles. "Don't forget; Eyes clear, ears open, bob and weave."

"And if that doesn't work," Riley said before pausing dramatically. She smirked. "Run like hell."

"Exactly."

Crystal stiffened and looked around. She slowly raised a finger to her mouth before turning around and walking towards the bushes, listening hard. She knew that she could hear someone's breathing and it wasn't one of theirs. Having been around them long enough, she knew each person's breathing pattern as well as their footsteps when they were approaching.

This was different…

Before she could move, something came whipping out of the darkness and hit her in the stomach, sending her flying back onto the ground. The others were knocked onto the ground as well, before she could give out a cry of warning.

"Ugh, whatever happened to eyes clear and ear open?" Patrick groaned.

"Shut up." Crystal replied.

"_Stop! Stop!"_

The friends groaned as they got to their feet, brushing off their clothes. As they waited, the forest around them slowly melted away until the white virtual simulation room came back. Tapeworm sighed as he pushed his curly hair out of his face and wiping sweat off of his neck.

"I think that's the third time that we've messed up." He commented, crossing his arms over his chest.

"More like the 7th," Christian Manning's voice came through the room over the loud speakers. "Alright, come back in here."

Zack let out a soft growl as he led everyone out of the room and into the control room where Christian, Core, and Aaron were sitting in chairs at the control panel, looking less than pleased. Zack crossed his arms over his chest as he turned to the older men.

"Please, don't say anything." He said slowly as he shook his head. "I don't think I need to hear another 'you fail' right now."

"Especially after he's heard it so much in school." Cody added with a short smile.

"Haha."

Christian ran his hands over his face and turned around in his chair over to Bailey Pickett, who was sitting at a desk, scribbling on a bunch of papers while she continuously looked back and forth between a stack next to her. "Bailey, how are things going over there?" He asked.

"Good so far," Bailey replied with a nod before looking up. "But I think that you're overworking them for now, especially when they're getting so frustrated of not being able to advance in this scenario." She picked up a small stack and waved it for emphasis. "I can see that Zack's frustration is already starting to cloud his judgment and it usually takes more time for that to happen."

"I think an hour break would suffice," Core said, getting Christian's attention. "You don't want them to use all of their energy on something as little as this when they have all the time in the world."

"Good idea," Christian agreed before turning back to his daughter, nieces, nephew, and their friends. "You guys can take a break now, but don't go too far, I want to be sure that you can finish this one."

"Sure thing, Christian." Tapeworm replied, sounding distracted.

Sydney looked at him and noticed that he was looking at the virtual reality room with a haunted look in his eyes. Sydney twisted his mouth to the side before lightly tugging on the bottom his friend's shirt. "Tape, are you ok?" he asked, knowing that he really wasn't. He just had to watch his late girlfriend fight alongside them and then she disappeared with the rest of the scenario that they were in. It was bound to make anyone depressed.

"I'm fine." He replied with a forced smile. "Really." He turned and left the room moments before his friends followed him. Aaron wiggled down from his seat and scurried after them, leaving Core and Christian in the control room by themselves.

Core leaned back in his seat, holding a hand over his mouth, looking deep in thought. "What's up?" Christian asked, noticing his expression. Core looked at him out of the corner of his eyes but stayed silent. "It must be something big if you're this worried."

"Nothing," Core replied after a moment, looking uncertain. "I just have a feeling."

"A good feeling or a bad feeling?"

"…just a feeling."

* * *

**A/N: **I have no idea why my first chapters are always short, but I'm working on it. -_- Anyway, this is now a sequel to Mystic Melody. I didn't plan on making a sequel at first, but when I got this idea, it made sense that it would be the sequel to it. I hope you guys liked it and I'll put up the next chapter soon.

Cheers,

-Riley


	2. It starts again

CHAPTER ONE

* * *

"_Hey, have you guys finished packing yet?"_

"…_.Maybe."_

Cody smiled to himself at the sound of Riley and Rhuben groaning at their brothers' procrastination on their packing as he bounded down the stairs of the Mannings' house and into the kitchen. He wasn't surprised to find his brother and Tapeworm already sitting at the table, eating some large, strangely concocted sandwiches.

"Hey, is there any of that Turkey left?" Cody asked as he went over to the refrigerator door and stuck his head inside.

"Not unless you want me to throw it back up." Zack muttered before taking another large bite of his sandwich.

"Ugh," Cody closed the refrigerator door and turned around so his back was resting against it. He glared daggers in the back of his twin's head. "I had my name written on it as dibs. You know that."

"Yes, and as your older brother, I think that I have the right to bypass any dibs." Zack turned in his chair, resting his arm on the back of it and gave Cody a smug smile. Tapeworm laughed a hearty laugh as he pushed his now short hair back off of his forehead, watching the exchange. Having grown up with the twin boys, it was still interesting for him to watch the two of them fight from time to time.

"You'd figure that after 18 years you would stop throwing that in my face," Cody commented as he walked over to the small kitchen table and grabbed a chair, turning it around before he sat in down in it, hugging the back of the chair and resting his forearms on the table. He reached out and grabbed Zack's sandwich from his hands and took a large bite, licking mustard off of his lip as he handed it back, ignoring Zack's hard stare. "But old habits die hard, I guess."

"Coming from the person that still carries Blankie around." Zack muttered.

"I haven't used Blankie in _months,_ thank you, very much!" Cody replied.

"It doesn't mean that you haven't cried as much."

"Bite me."

"Has anyone ever told you guys that watching you two is probably the most entertaining thing ever since we lost our powers?" Tapeworm said, his smile fading a little bit." Zack and Cody fell silent.

It was very strange to them, to be normal humans again after having their elemental powers since they were about 11 years old. Having been fighting off the darkness for almost as long, and then finally defeating it after figuring out that one of the rulers of the elemental world, Gattaca, tried to take over the human world, they had lost their powers as the balance to the human and elemental world had been restored. It was hard for them to get used to having to rely on public transportation to get somewhere, getting used to lifting lighter weights at the gym, and getting hurt easier than usual.

"It wouldn't be the first time that we heard it." Cody replied. "Probably won't be the last either." He looked up and gave a warm smile when he saw Bailey appear at the top of the basement stairs, running a hand over her neck. "Hey," he greeted her warmly. Bailey smiled back, albeit a bit tiredly as she walked over to him. Cody got up from his chair, turning it back around and pushed it back a little ways from the table, allowing Bailey to sit down on his lap. He leaned forward and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "What's wrong? You look tired."

"You'd be tired to if you've been up all night helping Christian and Nathan run tests." Bailey replied as she put her arm around Cody's shoulder to keep herself upright.

"Nathan?" Tapeworm repeated his eyebrows quirking.

"Core." Bailey corrected herself.

It was hard for them to get used to, knowing that Core was their ally now instead of their enemy. While fighting Halo Syndicate, they discovered that throughout their journey as elementals, Core was never really their enemy. He had been trying to capture them to keep the Jacksons, his deceased beset friend's children, safe from Halo Syndicate. After he showed his true colors, he started working along with Christian on their scientific research from years before. While Christian and Bailey easily stopped calling him core and used his real name, Nathan, the others were still wary that he would turn on them and continuously called him Core, to show him that they still held him a arm's length away, not trusting him entirely.

"Anyway, are you still helping them tonight?" Cody asked, gently rubbing her back. "Because I was thinking that we could get some dinner and then go to the museum."

"Hm, now I remember why you two annoy me so much." Zack commented as he leaned back in his chair, wiping his hands off on a napkin as he smirked. "You're both so annoyingly smart and your PDA isn't far behind." He looked at the two of them out of the corner of his eye. "Although you two are getting better at keeping it down around Crys."

Cody made a face as Bailey squirmed on his lap. Having grown up around their close group of friends, Cody had essentially moved through the girls that he was around, dating all except their friend Max Montgomery, and Zack's current girlfriend Riley. He had gone out with Riley's twin sister, Rhuben, and then their cousin Crystal, before going out with Bailey. While Cody and Rhuben were on very good terms after their breakup, things were somewhat awkward, if not cold, with Crystal. No one besides the two of them knows why they broke up or how badly they took it, but whenever he and Bailey showed their relationship when she was around, things got awkward pretty fast.

While they were all in Boston, Zack and Cody stayed in their old suite in the Tipton Hotel, which their friend Esteban now ran, Christian, his kids Crystal and Aaron, and his nieces and nephews stayed at the house, Core stayed at an apartment nearby, and Tapeworm and Bailey lived with Tapeworm's parents. Every day they went back to the Manning's house to get some work done. The most recent of Christian's and Core's research as well as help from Crystal, Sydney, Aaron, and Bailey created their new simulation machine to keep their fighting skills up as high as need be if the time ever comes. It was sort of bitter-sweet though, as the simulation machine made it that they simulated their powers again, but when it was all done, they were brought back to the reality that they didn't have the powers and they didn't have their guardians anymore.

Life had definitely been quiet without them around.

"You had to bring that up, didn't you?" Cody asked.

"Hey, I'm your big brother; I have to annoy you somehow." Zack replied. "Speaking of which, does anyone know when Reihu is supposed to be back?" He looked at his watch. "I figured that he would have at least tried to get back here before the Jacksons have to leave again."

"I'm going to make sure they're not killing each other," Tapeworm abruptly pushed back his chair and got to his feet, stretching as he did so. "It's _way_ too quiet up there."

Zack and Cody watched him leave the room; they both knew that it wasn't that he wanted to be sure that no one was fighting with each other. He was thinking about his girlfriend, Max. She was one of their friends that had grown up with them, having elemental powers as well, but she had perished, protecting Zack, in their last big battle and they knew that he hadn't gotten over it.

"I wish that there was something that we could do to help him," Bailey said, rubbing Cody's shoulder. "He always seems so sad, not like himself."

"It's nothing that we can actually help him with," Cody replied, lightly patting her on the thigh. He let out a sigh, not liking to see his best friend so upset. "And it's not something you get over, it's something you get through over time." He turned to Zack. "Have you and Riley ever talked about Koto?"

"No, and I don't plan on it unless I want to have _both_ of my arms broken along with my head ripped off." He gave a half smile. Koto had been someone that they had thought was their enemy as well as he and the rest of WingzCorp were working under Core, but they had proven that they could be friends. Koto was the one that had first got the Jacksons into WingzCorp years ago and was the first 'friend' that Riley had made. He was also the one that had died in battle while also trying to protect Zack.

"I can see that," Bailey said sympathetically. "It must be hard to talk about or even deal with a death when they've been around it so much."

"From what I can tell, it's something that they refuse to even talk about," Cody said. "And while that may be helpful at the moment, it's just going to hurt them later in life." He patted Bailey's thigh and she the two stood up. He reached out and grabbed onto her hand. "C'mon, let's go for a walk." He reached out and smacked Zack on the back of the head as he opened his mouth wide and made a gagging sound as he stuck a finger in his mouth.

Zack let out a short breath in frustration s he ran his hands over his face. All of the frustrations that he had managed to push out of his mind when they were working in the simulation room was coming back. He had homework to do; while he had graduated, his grades were only good enough to get him into a community college, he had to think about getting a job so he could have some money, he needed to get a car, he…maybe wanted to find his mom and dad. When things were falling apart in Boston with their final battle, Carey and Kurt Martin, who were on their way to getting back together, had left Boston, abandoning the boys.

It still made him sick to his stomach to think that they left as soon as they tried to explain everything that was going on with them. _I wonder where they are now. _He shook his head before pushing back his chair and leaving the room to go upstairs. He could hear Tapeworm, Crystal, Riley, and Rhuben talking loudly, seeming to be arguing about something.

Zack bee lined into the bathroom and closed the door behind him. All of a sudden he felt very hot. Zack reached out and turned on the faucet, allowing the sink to fill up with cold water, before bending over and splashing it onto his face. But with each splash of water, the warmer and warmer the room got. Zack lifted his head and grabbed a hand towel off of the rack by the door and started to dry his face. He looked up and noticed that the mirror was covered in steam. His eyebrows lowering in confusion, he reached out and started to wipe at the mirror, but as the condensation went away, the steam came back until the room was filled.

He closed his eyes, breathing deeply, trying to calm down as beads of sweat popped up against his forehead. All of a sudden, he felt calm. The heat wasn't bothering him, he actually felt at home in it, like he used to. He hadn't felt this way in a long time, not since he had his powers. It must be wishful thinking, wanting to be able to feel that way again that he was starting to trick himself into feeling it again.

Zack opened his eyes, the steam was gone; he was looking at his reflection in the mirror.

"Ugh, I look tired." He muttered to himself, inspecting the bags under his eyes. "I guess all of the years of fighting has finally caught up to me." He looked down.

He blinked and rubbed his eyes to be sure that what he was seeing was real.

"Blazen?"

* * *

**A/N: **Oooh, questions are already flying all over the place. Of course they'll be answered as the story goes along. I hope you liked it and I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	3. That familiar feeling

CHAPTER TWO

* * *

"Cody, what are you thinking about?" Bailey asked as she leaned into her boyfriend's side, looking up into his face. Cody looked startled, as if he had been brought out of his daydream, and looked over at her. "You've been quiet since we left the house, what's on your mind?"

Cody shrugged as the two entered Liberty Park and started to walk around. Bailey sighed, looking at her feet as she tightened her hand in his, enjoying the feeling of his larger hand in hers. She had an idea what he was thinking about, there were always a lot of things to choose from; missing their friends, missing his parents, being upset that he wasn't taking classes at Yale.

When their last adventure ended, everyone started to move on with their lives, Zack got into a community college, Bailey got into Yale, and while Cody was turned down from Yale, he was alternating between taking college classes online as well as helping out Christian and Core with their studies. Bailey tried not to bring up where she was going to college around Cody, he was devastated when he found out that she was accepted and he wasn't. But they had both agreed that they didn't want to give up on their relationship so Bailey made sure that she visited him in Boston as much as possible.

But that didn't keep him from getting upset about everything that had happened. Boston was his home, but so many difficult things had happened to him there.

"I was thinking about Mom and Dad, actually." Cody said after a moment. He laughed lightly as he shook his head. "I guess Zack was thinking about it too, because they suddenly popped into my head." His smile faded. "I don't know, I guess just remembering all the times that Zack, Mom, and I would have a picnic in the park are making me a bit depressed."

"Oh," Bailey stopped walking, in effect, causing Cody to stop as well. "If you're upset, we can just go back to the house."

"No," Cody shook his head. "I'm fine, just nostalgic." He waved an arm as they started walking once more. "You know that we did a lot of training here in Liberty Park shortly after we awakened." He said, grabbing Bailey's attention once more. "I don't know how, but in hindsight it's probably because of the shift in balance of the two worlds, but our guardians made it able so that we could basically practice in broad daylight without us being seen by non-elementals."

"Really?" Bailey's eyes widened in wonder before she smiled. "They probably took all of their powers and manifested them in a way that it incorporated the 'invisible' elemental world that was foundering against our own to make it that you weren't seen."

Cody gave a proud smile, pleased that she was able to figure it out so easily.

The two of them were easily some of the smartest ones of their group of friends, and they easily got a bit tired with their friends that weren't as intellectually as advanced as they were. So it was good for them to be able to express their ideas to each other without rolling eyes or blank stares.

Bailey watched as Cody's eyes darkened once more.

_He's thinking about them again. _Bailey thought to herself, not sure what to do to take his mind off of it this time. _He had Phantom with him ever since he was 11 years old, it must be hard for him to adjust without them around now. I guess I get how they're feeling, I miss Geneva so much._

While the others had learned from a young age that they were elementals, Bailey wasn't. She was a normal girl that had their elemental secret kept from them until she stumbled across Zack and Cody fighting against Koto and Reihu one day and things snowballed from there. While she wasn't an elemental, the Shaman of the Elemental world, and the keeper of Light in the elemental world, Geneva, inhabited Bailey's body so she could help them fight her brother, Gattaca, and bring him back home to the elemental world so they could rule it in harmony once again.

_I wonder how she's doing. _Bailey thought to herself, leaning into Cody's sighed as he put his arm around her shoulder. _I wonder if Gattaca is doing better now. I wonder if things have changed._

"Bailey?"

Bailey looked up, her hair hitting her in her face as a gust of wind blew across the park. Cody smirked down at her, his eyes dancing with mischief.

"Now _who's_ the one that's zoning out?" He teased, nudging her on the arm. Quick as a flash, his smile faded and he stiffened, looking around. "Did you feel that?" He asked.

"Feel what?" Bailey questioned, her anxiety rising quickly.

Cody let go of Bailey's hand and started to spin around in quick circles, his eyes darting back and forth, as if he was looking for something. Bailey watched him, her anxiety causing her to look around as well. But she knew that she wasn't going to be able to feel or see anything as it was. She wasn't an elemental, so she wasn't able to be connected into that instinct that they had to know that danger was near. But as it was, they weren't really elementals anymore either, the balance of the world was restored and their guardians went away, along with their power source.

So how was he able to feel something now?

"I just felt a warm shiver run down my spine," Cody replied, his voice cracking a little with emotion. "And I got the familiar feeling of wings across my face, which usually let me know that Phantom was around." He raised his hands to his face, looking a bit distraught, but mostly confused. "I must be losing it, I just felt-"

"Cody," Bailey took a breath. "Maybe you're _not_ going crazy."

Cody slowly lowered his hands from his face as he looked at his girlfriend seriously. "What do you mean?" He asked.

"…You know how you said that with you guys that dreams are the most important things to you, because it helps you figure out some things that might be coming in the near future?"

He nodded.

"I…might have an idea that something is going to happen soon. Something _big_."

* * *

**A/N: **Sorry it's a short chapter, I wanted to show more of Bailey and it ended up being a shorter scene than I intended, and nothing else was that important to add onto it so… I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	4. Is it just stress?

CHAPTER THREE

* * *

"Hey," Zack poked his head into the room that Riley, Rhuben, Crystal, and Tapeworm were in before. His eyes shot around the room as he spotted Tapeworm on top of a suitcase, as Patrick and Noah were trying to get it closed. "Where'd everybody go?"

"Riley, Rhuben, and Crystal went to take Aaron and Sydney to the playground before they went to the airport," Tapeworm replied, starting to bounce up and down on the suitcase.

"What's wrong?" Noah asked, looking at him closely. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Yeah, you look beat," Patrick added, showing a slight trace of concern. "Have you been getting enough sleep lately?"

Zack shook his head, trying to get back on track. "This is important," he said, lowering his voice. "You know that feeling that you guys get when you know that your guardians would be near? Like, if they had gone off, but that feeling that you got when they came back?" The others nodded, giving him a strange look. "Well, I just got that feeling again." He said slowly.

"Zack," Noah gave him a pointed stare. "All of us miss our friends; maybe the stress of adjusting to life without them is starting to get to you." He suggested gently. "I mean, we're not elementals anymore. How could we suddenly get our powers back?"

"I don't know," Zack shrugged. "Does anything with our powers every really make sense?"

"He's got a point." Patrick pointed out.

"Then why now?" Tapeworm jumped to the floor. "If what you said is true, why would our powers suddenly come back now?" He tilted his head down and lightly cupped his chin as he thought about it. "Unless it's just you." He added, speaking out loud. "Because the rest of us haven't felt something or we would have said something by now." He looked over at Patrick and Noah for confirmation and they nodded in agreement. "What happened when you had that feeling?"

"Ok, so I was going to splash some water on my face, and like I usually felt when Blazen was around, I felt steam hitting my face and like, wings across my arm." Zack explained quickly. "And when I looked down at the sink, Blazen was sitting in the bottom, looking at me. I had to blink a few times to make sure that he was there, and then when I reached out to touch him, to make sure that he was really there, but then he disappeared."

Patrick moved his jaw to the side as he stayed silent, Noah tilted his head back to look at the ceiling, and Tapeworm continued to look at the floor, his hand on his chin.

Zack let out an impatient sigh as he crossed his arms over his chest. "You don't believe me." He accused.

"It's not that," Noah said slowly. "'Cause there is a good possibility that it _did_ happen, but I'm not sure that-"He stopped and tilted his head to the side as he listened intently. "Cody and Bailey are coming." He said after a second, righting his head. About two minutes later, the two appeared in the doorway.

"How do you do that?" Tapeworm asked, causing Noah to smile and shrug.

"Where is everyone?" Cody asked, his eyes darting around.

"Riley, Rhuben, and Crystal took Sydney and Aaron to the playground," Tapeworm repeated himself from earlier. "And Core and Christian are still in the basement." His eyes narrowed when he noticed that they were breathing heavily. "Are you ok? Did you run all the way back here?"

"We can't say anything until everyone is back here." Bailey said, her eyes shifting away from her friends that were standing in front of here.

"Something big must have happened then," Reihu suddenly appeared behind everyone, dropping a backpack to the ground. "What'd I miss?"

"Not much." Patrick replied.

"Seriously guys," Bailey got their attention again. "This is _really_ important."

* * *

"Aaron, come on!" Sydney grabbed onto his cousin's hand before he tore across the playground towards the swings.

"Ugh, I feel old," Riley commented as she sat down on a bench beside the playground. She crossed her legs at the knee. "I only thought that I would be sitting here watching kids play when I was at least 28." She cracked a small smile as she watched Sydney help Aaron onto a swing and give him a push before climbing on one himself.

"If it wasn't this experience that made you feel old, years of fighting that results in our powers being taken away should make you feel dead." Crystal commented as she slouched down on the bench, stretching her legs out in front of her. "But I guess that's what your trip home would help, so you can get some rest."

"Ha," Rhuben snorted. "How can you rest when you have to go to school?" She shook her head. "You're lucky that you just get to help your Dad all the time."

"Eh, not really," Crystal shrugged. "'I probably work as hard as I would be doing if I went to school. I'm sure that Dad's doing that on purpose." She looked at her watch for a moment. "Your guys' flight leaves at 8:30 right?"

"Yep, and because it's a 22 hour flight, I'd rather have Sydney be completely worn out than fighting with Patrick the whole way there." Rhuben said, tilting her head back, allowing the setting sun to fall onto her face as she closed her eyes. Her eyebrows lowered a bit. "How come you haven't gone back home to Canada yet?"

"It's not me," Crystal said, keeping her eyes on her younger brother and cousin. "It's Dad. He keeps saying that we don't have time, but I know it's just hard for him to go back home. Especially since his mom and dad think that it was his fault that mom died. He doesn't want to deal with the pressure."

"But going to face it would just ease the pressure," Riley pointed out. "I mean, it's better to get closure than to continue to push it away. At least in my opinion." She added the last part quickly when Crystal didn't answer quickly.

"Yeah, well," she sighed. "It's Dad's choice, and I'm going to back him up with whatever he decides."

"But you know the only good thing about this is that you get to sit around all day long, listening to Cody go on and on about who knows what when he's not talking about Bailey." Riley's lips curled as she and Rhuben started to laugh to themselves.

"Funny." Crystal deadpanned.

"It kind of is," Riley said as she shrugged, crossing her own arms across her chest. "I mean, you two break up for reasons that no one knows," she ignored Crystal's defensive remark that it wasn't anyone's business. "Every time you talk there's nothing but cold tension, when Bailey's around it seems like all you want to do is rip her head off, and when the two of them are around you, you just leave the room. It has to be awkward."

"I'm glad you're getting a sense of amusement out of this," Crystal looked at her twin cousins out of the corner of her eye. "But like I said, it's no one's business why we broke up."

"You kissed the guy for god's sake, when he started things out with Bailey, and basically alluded to the fact that you still have feelings for him when he was trying to talk to you." Rhuben said, sitting up straight. "To make sure that things were ok between you two. Sorry if I think that's a little weird."

Crystal sighed and shook her head. "Can we talk about something else, please?"

"What else is there to talk about?" Riley asked with a shrug. "We're either doing school work or helping Christian and Core work on their simulation thing or sleeping. Our lives aren't that interesting."

"We could talk about Za-"

"Don't even!" Riley interrupted sharply. Her scowl deepened when Rhuben and Crystal took the time to laugh at her expense.

"The guy's been in love with you since you met him, you've treated him like dirt for who knows how long, and then you say that you love him, and then immediately take it back, acting like it didn't happen." Rhuben scratched her forehead. "Sorry if I don't really get your reasoning on all of this."

"Coming from the person that's dating someone that's half lion." Riley shot back. "And I told you before, I _thought_ that I was _dying_ after I got into that fight with Hayden. So I was trapped in the heat of the moment." She shrugged. "If I had thought of it first, I probably would have told him to tell Cody that I was the one that accidentally destroyed his science project back when we were in eighth grade."

"But you didn't." Rhuben and Crystal chorused.

"Shut up." Riley reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone as it rang loudly. "Hey Tape, what's up?" She asked as she answered the phone. Her eyebrows furrowed together. "Right now?" She looked at her watch. "Is it really that important? Of course it is, we'll be there in a few minutes." She hung up her phone and turned to her cousin and sister. "Apparently Bailey has some important news that she needs to share and we need to get back to the house. It's important." She stood up and stuck two fingers in her mouth and whistled shrilly. Aaron's head whipped towards her. "Guys, we have to go!"

"Aww," Sydney pouted as he jumped off a swing. "Already? We just got here!"

"It's important," Crystal added as she got to her feet. "C'mon boys."

"Ok."

Sydney waited until Aaron got off of his swing and the two walked back over to the girls. "I'm guessing this has to do with elementals?" He said, lowering her voice so no one could hear their conversation.

Aaron's sightless blue eyes moved towards Crystal. "Do you think that Dad ended up finding out something else about it?"

"No," Crystal shook her head as she placed her hand on his shoulder as they all turned and started to walk back to the Manning's house. "Apparently Bailey has something to tell us." She explained.

"Oh."

"Yeah."

* * *

Bailey bit her lower lip in worry before taking a deep breath and turning back to face Zack, Cody, Crystal, Aaron, Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, Sydney, Reihu, Tapeworm, Christian, and Core; who were sitting across from her, patiently waiting for her to announce her news.

"Ok," she let out a sigh. "Before you guys get angry-"

"Conversations that start like that really don't mean that it's going to be a good thing." Reihu commented. He sank back in his seat as Christian shushed him and motioned for Bailey to continue with her announcement.

"A couple of weeks ago, Geneva came to me a in a dream," Bailey said. "Things were good at first, I was happy to see her," a wistful smile slid onto her face. "It was like I could really feel her there, even though I knew that she wasn't." She shook her head. "And then Gattaca came by, I was scared at first, because I wasn't sure if we actually did purify him, and he was nice as well. He apologized for everything that he had done."

"Can you really believe that though?" Zack asked slowly. "I mean, this _was_ a dream, how do we know that we actually helped him?" He ran a hand through his hair. "The 'door' to the elemental world closed when he went back, so we can't tell if it worked."

"I'm getting to that," Bailey replied. "After a bit of sitting with them, Geneva and Gattaca told me that we've only temporarily fixed the barrier between both worlds and that there's a good possibility that it would open again."

"So you're saying that there's a chance that we could be elementals again?" Tapeworm asked, looking skeptical.

Bailey shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not." She paused. "They've only come to me in a dream, directly, once. But since then, I've been having dreams that seemed like they're premonitions, I remember a few pictures, but I don't remember anything that was said."

"_That's_ helpful." Riley remarked.

Bailey sighed, turning her foot in the carpet. "I'm doing the best I can."

"How long ago did you have this dream?" Sydney asked curiously, tilting his head to the side. "The way that you say it, it seems like you've had it a while ago and have been taking the time to figure things out instead of talking to us about it." He said gently.

Bailey gave a sheepish smile. "About a month ago?"

"A month!" Zack repeated, his eyes widening in shock. "You had this dream a _month_ ago and you didn't say anything?"

"Zack, leave her alone, she was just trying to figure out what she should say before she got our hopes up." Cody defended her quickly. "Besides, it's not like we didn't keep things from her when she first figured out what was going on.

"That's because she wasn't and _still isn't _an elemental." Zack said as patiently as possible. "No disrespect Bailey," he held a hand out to her. "But if it's a human learning about this, then I'd be more hesitant, but someone that wasn't an elemental in the first place not telling us something that had been going on when we should know, I think is ridiculous."

No one said anything after that for a few moments.

As Zack was the 'unofficial-official' leader of all of them, they had a habit of waiting to see what his reaction to something would be before they reacted themselves. And in this case, they could see how both Zack and Bailey were right. But that's also what showed how even though she had gone through a big adventure with them; Bailey still wasn't completely part of the group.

"Is there anything from your recent dreams that you can tell us that you think might possibly be helpful?" Christian asked. Beside him, Nathan had leaned forward and rested his arms on his legs, his hands clasped together. He then leaned forward and rested his head against his hands.

"Dark clouds, singing, rain, crying." Bailey shrugged. "That's about it."

"Not much that we can go off of, really." Rhuben said as she rubbed her chin. She turned her attention to Zack, who seemed to be thinking about it.

"Just let us know if there's anything else that you can remember that can help us." Zack said finally. "Maybe something won't happen, maybe something will, but it's better to be prepared just in case."

* * *

**A/N: **Sorry for the wait. As usual, more questions are brought up, and at least two of them are answered. I hope you guys liked it.

Cheers,

-Riles


	5. The end of the beginning

CHAPTER FOUR

* * *

"Are you guys all set?" Cody asked as he scanned the carry-on-bags that were sitting on the floor.

It was still early at the airport, so there were only a few people about, much less than the usual crowd. Zack, Cody, Christian, Crystal, and Aaron were seeing the Jacksons off as they went back home to Australia to get some schoolwork done. Core, Tapeworm, and Bailey had already said their goodbyes back at the house.

"Yep" Sydney replied with a bright smile and a nod.

"How can they forget anything?" Crystal asked her arms crossed over her chest. "You made sure that they packed and repacked and repacked _again_ to be sure that they had everything."

"Hey, better safe than sorry." Cody defended himself.

"Who cares about that?" Zack asked, jumping into the conversation. He turned to his friends. "Remember, souvenirs." He instructed.

"Like we could forget that either," Patrick rolled his eyes. "You want us to bring you something back every time we go back home." He couldn't help but let his excited smile slide onto his face. No matter how much time he spent with his family, or how many adventures that they had gone on, nothing could ever beat the feeling of being able to go home.

The sounds of pandemonium surrounded them: the indistinct chatter of thousands of the travelers, the loud, clear voices of airline personnel announcing gates and loadings, the frequent shaking resonance of airplanes landing and taking off.

They all looked up when the woman on the PA system announced, "Gate B-36 is now loading."

"That's us," Riley said and reached over to grab her carry-on-bag off of the floor.

Aaron pouted as he kicked a foot at the floor. "Are you sure you have to leave? Can't you stay here? You haven't been here that long and we still have a lot of research to do." His shoulders sagged.

"Trust me, if school was so freaking important than I wouldn't be leaving." Rhuben said her tone filled with sarcasm. She reached out and gave her younger cousin a light hug. "But you know we can't. Besides, Julius would kill is if he knew thought that we were going to drop out of school."

"I'd kill you all before he could," Christian reminded her and then gave each of his nieces and nephews a hug. "See you later, tell Julius and Maddie that we say 'hi'."

"And that we're waiting for them to come back and visit Boston again." Crystal added with a nod before taking her turn to hug her cousins. "We could use some help with some of our research and I'm sure they're getting tired of the surf and sand as it is."

"I don't think that's possible." Sydney said cheekily.

"I'm definitely going to miss _your_ company in the lab, Syd." Crystal leaned down and gave him a kiss on the forehead before stepping back to her father's side. She, Zack, Cody, Christian, and Aaron waved as the boarding call to their flight was called once more.

"Bye," Noah smiled and waved as he grabbed his backpack and slung it up over his shoulder.

And with that, they moved into the never-ending chaos of the airport and disappeared from view, getting on their planet to go back home.

"Ah," Christian stretched his arms over his head before resting his right arm around his daughter's shoulders. "At least I can get a little bit of peace and quiet now." He said with a light laugh. Crystal rolled her eyes and pushed her father's arm off of her shoulders.

"Way to wait until the body turned cold." She replied, although she was shaking her head a little bit.

"Hey, you have to admit that I have a lot of patience having to deal with so many noisy teenagers at one time," Christian replied as he raised an eyebrow. He looked down at his watch. "To save on time, how about I go and get the car and pull it back over here." He suggested.

"Alright," Zack agreed with a nod. "We'll wait here for you." He crossed his arms over his chest and watched as Christian walked away. His eyes narrowed and he slowly started to look around the airport, as if he was watching someone. Cody noticed and peered at him, curiously, and Zack held up a hand, signaling him to wait a few moments before speaking. "Sorry," he apologized a moment later, I thought I just saw…" he trailed off for a moment, not sure if he should continue.

"Thought you saw Blazen?" Aaron guessed. Surprised, Zack looked down at the sightless boy, who was turned in his direction. "I could practically feel he wind that you were creating from whipping your head so fast."

"Wait a minute," Cody turned to face his brother. "You saw Blazen? Or at least thought you saw him?" He asked, Zack nodded slowly. Cody rubbed a hand over his mouth, confusion tugging at his facial features. "I thought I sensed Phantom around earlier today, when Bailey and I went to the park. Is that when you saw him?" Zack's jaw dropped a little as he nodded. The two usually weren't surprised when they did or experienced something similarly, but when it came to Elementals and Elements, nothing was easy about it.

"Let me make sure that I'm getting this straight," Crystal moved in between Zack and Cody. "You two both think…it's possible that you could have, but I'm not sure, that you've sensed your guardians around?" She asked.

"Why is it that no one believes me when I say this?" Zack asked, letting out a sigh of exasperation.

"Your track record doesn't really help you be believable," Crystal pointed out with a short shrug, causing Zack to make a 'humph' sound. 'But it seems to me,' she studied him. "That you're telling the truth here." She rubbed her chin for a moment as she thought. "Maybe it has to do with what Bailey was talking about, she kept that dream thing from us for about a month, and now some of our powers are manifesting themselves again."

She stayed silent for a moment as she looked around the airport. She turned and looked out the window, watching as a plane took off. Moving her hand from her chin, she let out a soft curse, running her hand through her hair. Twisting her mouth to the side, she turned back around to face Zack, Cody, and Aaron, the three of them looking at her intently.

"I think that whatever is going to happen is coming sooner than we think," She said slowly. "When we thought that we were through with the elements…" she shook her head slowly. "It was just the end of the beginning. There's more trouble headed our way."

Zack and Cody exchanged glances.

Great.

* * *

**A/N: **And after the first four really slow chapters, the adventure begins again! I hope you guys are all excited for it! Sorry it was a short chapter.

Cheers,

-Riles


	6. Beserk button

CHAPTER FIVE

* * *

"So when do you have to go back to Connecticut?" Tapeworm asked as he and Bailey grabbed their shoes as they sat by the Manning's' front door and pulled them on. "I figured that they'd only give you so much time to come back home so often."

"Yeah, I'm already starting to have my professors become suspicious," Bailey said with a sigh as she sat down on the floor and started to unlace her shoes. "I mean, there's only so many excuses that I can give before they realize that I'm doing elemental study in my free-time." She shook her head. "And if they found out about that, they'd want to know what I had to do with the whole 'apocalypse that fell over Boston months ago." She paused in tying her shoes. "It's not even worth it at this point; sometimes I think I should just quit school."

"No way," It was Tapeworm's turn to shake his head. "If you did that, you'd be throwing away some of the best opportunities that you could ever dream of happening."

"But at the same time, they're probably going to figure out about this elementals stuff sooner than we think," Bailey insisted. "I mean, how long can they go without realizing that I'm closely related to Max's…" she trailed off, seeing Tapeworm wince. "You know." He sighed as she stood up. "Quick intuitive searches in the news can easily have even the dumbest person figure it out. And by then, it'll be too late to keep everything a secret."

"Keep _what _a secret?" Tapeworm insisted with a teasing smile. "We don't have powers anymore; they can't tie anything to us." He reached out and pulled Bailey to her feet. "C'mon, we have to get going or we'll be late for dinner and you know how my mom is about having dinner together."

"Well, should we leave a note for Crystal, Zack, and Cody?" Bailey asked as she allowed herself to be pulled to her feet. "I mean, so they can find us when they get back."

"Why?" Tapeworm shrugged. "Do you think that something is going to happen?"

Bailey shrugged but didn't answer.

She couldn't be sure whether or not something was going to happen. Ever since she had her dram, she wasn't sure if the ground was going to open up and create massive havoc at any minute. She hardly slept as it was; staying up late to watch the news, makings sure that there wasn't any news report that could be traced back to them. The news about their final battle with Gattaca was slowly going away, but that didn't stop a story from appearing every now and then.

Especially because they noted that Max had died from 'unexplainable causes'. It would probably take them years for the police to entirely figure out what had happened that day, but for the time being it was probably better for Max's parents that they didn't know exactly what happened. Bailey wasn't even sure that the Montgomerys or the Michaels' knew about their sons and daughters powers let alone their relationship.

But no one was going to bring it up now.

It was too painful.

"I don't know what's going to happen," Bailey admitted. "I just want to be sure that things don't completely spiral out of control at a moment's notice."

"It's elemental stuff, Bailey." Tapeworm said as he reached out and opened the front door. "Things like that happen all the time. If we could predict them, then we wouldn't have as many questions as we usually do. Not even Christian and Core know everything that goes on in the elemental world and they've been studying it for _years._"

"Good point." Bailey agreed as she followed him out the door and down the street, towards Tapeworm's house.

Bailey tilted her head back and looked at the sky as they walked along in silence. The sky was turning a light pink and purple with the setting sun. The leaves on the trees around them were starting to change colors; a light, chilly wind blew. It was only the fall and things were starting to change around them pretty quickly. Everyone was starting to go off and do their own thing, although the tiniest threat of a new attack kept them going back to Boston time after time.

But that didn't keep their blatant distrust of others at bay.

That didn't keep the nightmares from occurring.

That didn't keep them from having trouble talking to their classmates or those that were their age around them.

That didn't keep them from going over scenario after scenario over and over, in case their powers finally did come back. What with her dream, they were almost positive that it was going to happen soon, but under what circumstances, they weren't sure. It was probably the only good thing that the simulation machine was going to be helpful with (if they could actually get through a scenario).

"You're thinking about your dream again aren't you?" Tapeworm guessed, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "It's nothing to worry about, there's always some sort of a…warning, I guess, when something bad is going to happen."

"What if my dream was the warning?" Bailey shot back. "It's like you said before, we don't know _anything _about the elemental world and even though Nathan and Christian have been studying it for so long, they've never been there, so they don't know a lot about it either." She let out a sound of frustration. "Something bad could be happening there, and we don't know about it. What if you guys didn't really save the world? What if we didn't fulfill the prophecy? What if you just helped purify Gattaca or whatever it was that happened," they weren't sure if they had actually killed him or not, due to how easy it seemed that he was defeated. "What if we just _temporarily_ aligned the balance of the two worlds?"

"Don't you think that you're getting a little too ahead of yourself with this?" Tapeworm asked as he stopped walking and peered at her silently. His face, interestingly enough, was completely blank. He didn't look curious or worried, he just looked like he was just….there…

"Maybe," Bailey conceded as she stopped as well. She let out a sigh and ran her hands through her hair. "Sorry, I'm just nervous, worried."

"About us or about Cody?" Tapeworm gave a hint of a smile. "To tell you the truth, I think that the two of you are doing just fine with the distance and everything. He's taking over your work whenever you're in school and Zack's doing fine with his community college classes. You knew that he couldn't follow you all the way out of Connecticut and leave Zack behind as well as everything that he knew in Boston."

"I did that with my family and friends." Bailey reminded Tapeworm, thinking of her home in Kettlecorn, Kansas.

"But your family thinks you're dead," Tapeworm said gently. "Because you knew that you could never go back home."

"I think I made a mistake on that part."

"Everyone makes mistakes every once in a while, we just have to live with them."

Tapeworm rubbed his arms as the wind blew again and he turned and started to walk once more. Bailey let out a sigh and followed him. The two went home in silence, but the silence as broken as soon as they got back to Tapeworm's house. As soon as the door opened, Tapeworm spotted his parents running around, seemingly frightened by something. Tapeworm raised an eyebrow, looking over at Bailey, as he closed the door behind them. He turned back to his parents, his father holding onto a large hockey-stick and his mother holding a phone in one hand and an empty pillow case in the other. She was also alternating between screaming into the phone and screaming at her husband.

"HEY!" Tapeworm bellowed, trying to get their attention. "What's going on?"

"There's a _bear _in the house!" Mrs. Michaels replied loudly, finally noticing her son by the front door.

"A bear?" Bailey repeated. _Why would there be a bear in Boston? There aren't any bears around here. _As soon as the thought went through her head, she turned to Tapeworm, who was already looking back at her, both of their mouths dropped open. "Ursa?" she whispered.

"I don't think so," Tapeworm whispered back as he shook his head. "I would have felt something." He said in reply.

"Last we saw it, it was in your room, Christopher," Mr. Michaels said, keeping his eyes towards the stairs. "We called the police, and they're on their way now." Panic flashed across Tapeworm's face and he quickly rushed towards the stairs, Bailey hot on his heels. "Hey, don't go up there!" He called after them. "It's not safe!"

"Don't worry," Bailey tossed back over her shoulder. "We know how to trap a bear!"

Tapeworm and Bailey hurried towards Tapeworm's room, but stopped short when they spotted a lumbering black and green bear in the hallway. When it noticed them, it reared up on its hind legs, becoming even more menacing than before and roared loudly, its sharp teeth protruding into the air. When it stood back on its feet, Tapeworm got a glimpse of his element symbol on the bear's stomach.

It was Ursa.

But something was wrong.

"He's being controlled by something," Tapeworm said as he felt into a fighting stance. "I can feel it, it's not the same feeling that I get whenever Ursa is around." He held an arm out in front of Bailey as the two cautiously backed up, Ursa slowly went back down on all fours and slowly stalked towards them.

"What are we going to do?" Bailey whispered.

Everything that she knew about surviving bear attacks: trying to blind them, appear bigger than the bear, don't make any sudden movements…it all went out of her head. Things were different now; Ursa had the power to control nature and she knew that things would quickly get worse if they didn't do something soon.

"If Ursa is around, maybe you can use your powers." She whispered after a second.

"You don't think that I haven't been trying," Tapeworm said back. "Whatever is controlling Ursa, I think it's keeping me from awakening my powers again. If he's around, I should be able to tap right into it." They continued to inch back towards the stairs. "I don't think our watches are working either." He added as an afterthought.

"It won't hurt to try," Bailey moved from behind Tapeworm's back and ducked into his father's office. She moved her face to her mouth and pressed the button on the side. "Zack? Cody? Anyone there? We have a problem at Tapeworm's house, Ursa is…we think something's controlling him and we think it's controlling Tapeworm's powers too, or else we think he would be able to use them. I don't know what's going on." She paused and moved the watch from her face. "Crystal? Anyone there?"

Ursa let out another roar and Mrs. Michael's voice came from downstairs. "Kids, get down from there, it's not safe!"

"We can handle it!" Bailey called back.

She heard a cry of pain and hurried out of the office to see Tapeworm on his back, holding Ursa's jaws away from his face, his arms shaking from the effort. Ursa was snarling and swiping his claws at his Master. One of his claws had managed to hit Tapeworm on the side, sending blood splattering on the wall.

"I could use some help here," he grunted, spotting her out of the corner of his eye.

"I don't think they're working!" Bailey said to him. "I don't know what to do." She closed her eyes and tried to push the sound of her beating heart out of her head. _Think Bailey, think. What do you know about bear attacks that will keep them away? Think about the times that you've had to scare them off when you went hiking in the mountains…_Her eyes snapped open and she turned and darted back into the office.

She started to toss things around, pushing papers off of the desk, knocking over bookshelves, opening drawers and flying through them. She didn't care about the mess, she had to look quickly or things were going to get worse. She could still hear Tapeworm struggling to keep Ursa away from him as he roared again. All of a sudden, Bailey gasped at a sudden flash of green light and Tapeworm's cry of pain. She didn't need to look to know that Ursa had just used some attack against his former Master. She had to move faster.

"Flashlight, flashlight, where are you?" She hissed under her breath.

Finally, she ripped the left hand-side drawer out of the desk and dropped it to the ground, spilling its contents everywhere. Pens, pencils, staples, and a stapler clattered to the ground amongst many papers and folders. Bailey reached down and pushed them away, grinning when she spotted a flashlight.

"Aha!" She scooped the flashlight up off of the floor and hurried out into the hallway. Ursa lifted his head and roared at her when he saw her and she quickly lifted the switch on the flashlight. But nothing happened. "What?" Bailey flipped it over and looked at the top.

There was no light.

"No, no, no, no, no." Bailey started to shake the flashlight rapidly, hoping that the light would suddenly turn on.

Ursa smacked Tapeworm on the side of the head with a heavy paw, sending him rolling to the side and started to lumber down the hallway towards the farm girl. Tapeworm rolled onto his stomach and pulled himself up.

"Bailey, watch out!" He called.

Bailey lifted her head for a brief second before smacking the side of the flashlight. When the light popped on, she turned it around and shined it into Ursa's face. Ursa's eyes widened for a second before he reached up on his hind legs, twisting his face away. It let out a whine of pain before turning and starting to beat its head against the wall. Bailey dropped the flashlight and hurried over to Tapeworm, squishing against the wall as she passed Ursa, hoping that he didn't turn around and attack her.

"Are you ok?" Bailey reached down to him and helped him to her feet, holding his weight against her.

"I'm fine," Tapeworm replied. He looked down at his torn short, blood seeping through, a little bit of his skin torn away. "It doesn't hurt." He said in surprise. Bailey looked down at the gruesome gash. "I swear it doesn't hurt." He pressed his palm firmly against the wound, as it trying to prove it.

Bailey studied his face.

It didn't screw up in pain at all, it must not have hurt.

_Bailey_…

Geneva's voice suddenly filled her head. But it wasn't alone. Gattaca's was there as well. Their voices were blending together.

_Bailey, concentrate and you can break the hold that has Ursa._

Bailey closed her eyes. She could feel their power surge back into her arms and legs like it had done before. She felt even more powerful than she had when she was using Geneva's power. It must be the power of using light and darkness at the same time. Part of her was serene, the other part of her felt a bit of pain and despair. She could feel the two powers mesh against each other and make an even bigger power in her body.

_Do it._

Bailey opened her eyes and held her hands out, palms out. Her hands started to glow a light gray color and as she held them out, little wisps of energy flowed off of her hands, twisting and twirling through the air as they headed over towards Ursa. As the two watched, the wisps of energy collected into a ball and landed on Ursa's forehead as he pulled back from the wall once more, getting ready to hit his head against it. The wisps stayed on his forehead for a second and then lifted off, up into the air, something glowing inside of it. As the wisps continued to hover in the air, whatever was glowing broke apart and crumbled into dust that fell to the carpet.

Ursa let out a little whine as he slumped onto his stomach, closing his eyes. In two quick flashes, he turned into his human form and then turned into his small form.

Tapeworm quickly glowed green before hurrying over to his guardian, picking him up into his arms. "Ursa." He whispered. "Are you ok?"

"I didn't mean it, Master Tapeworm," Ursa whispered back, his eyes opening slowly. "Something was taking me over."

"It's alright, it wasn't your fault." Tapeworm replied with a small smile.

He turned and looked at Bailey.

She looked away for a moment. "I told you so." Was all that she could say.

* * *

**A/N: **Ooh, something that we haven't seen before, the guardians being controlled by something. What do you think it possibly is that's behind it?


	7. They hadn't thought of that

CHAPTER SIX

* * *

With the confusion and chaos that Bailey and Tapeworm had faced back at Tapeworm's house, they couldn't get Ursa back to Christian's house for another five days. They had to make sure that Ursa was hidden every time his parents came around, and then had to deflect as many question as they possible could, hoping that it didn't bring up any more questions that they couldn't answer. When Tapeworm wasn't doing his classes online, he was watching his guardian, making sure that nothing was happening to him again.

Ursa seemed to have the same thought, as he refused to come off of or out from under Tapeworm's bed, even when the coast was clear and no one else was home. That wasn't the only thing that they had to get used to. Tapeworm, essentially, had to relearn how to use his powers. Once he had pushed himself away from his desk, to get something from the kitchen, and had forgotten about his newfound strength. The force of the push knocked him _and the chair _backwards a few feet. The chair had stopped short as it hit the carpet, but Tapeworm kept going, smacking into the wall behind him.

It was a miracle that he didn't bust a hole into the wall from the force of the hit.

Bailey helped the best that she could do during the whole process, but she had to get ready to go back to school as well. The next semester was starting up again and she was starting to wonder whether or not it was worth it.

It was Yale.

But things were changing on her end.

It was complicated.

The day that they were finally able to get to Christian's house, Bailey was a complete wreck. She couldn't get to sleep at all in the past couple of days, because she had been thinking so much about what had happened when Ursa was being taken over and how she had been able to use Geneva's and Gattaca's powers…she already had a notebook with twenty pages of different thoughts and facts about it written down. Now all she needed to go and see what Christian and Nathan had to say about it; and see what Zack, Cody, Crystal, Aaron, and the Jacksons thought.

There was so much to do in so little time.

Opting to act that they were going to go the gym, Tapeworm had Ursa change back to his small form and had placed him in a gym bag that he hung around his shoulders. He had to fill the bag with little slices of apples and crackers as Ursa's appetite hadn't changed since they had been apart. With all of the power that the guardians and elementals had, they found themselves eating a lot more than most people would. (Not that it really affected the elementals; their metabolisms seemed to skyrocket along with their power).

Tapeworm checked his father's office and his parents' bedroom before he motioned for Bailey to follow him downstairs. "Ok, so all we have to do is-"

"Christopher, where do you think you're going at this time of night?" Mrs. Michaels demanded as she came out of the kitchen. She briefly glanced at her watch and then back to her son and his friend, who looked back at her, eyes wide.

"To the gym." Bailey supplied quickly. "We haven't gone in a couple of days and-"

"I can't have you go out there!" Mrs. Michaels' eyes widened in fear. She looked at her watch once more, missing the confused expressions on Tapeworm's and Bailey's faces. "Didn't you hear? The city has a curfew now! After everything that happened a couple of months ago, when the city was evacuated, all of those weird storms and now people calling in and saying that they're getting strange animals in their homes-"

"What?" Bailey gasped.

"I thought we were the only ones," Mrs. Michaels continued, mistaking Bailey's gasp for concern, not blind panic. "But there have been calls flooding in all day, and the news is filled with video clips of what went on a few months ago. The strange lightning, the odd storm, some people even caught footage of people seeming to have some strange powers. As if out of a science-fiction movie." It was then that Tapeworm noticed the phone in her right hand.

"Where's Dad?" he demanded.

"On his way home from work, I'm calling him to try and get him to get here faster so he's knock blocked out of the city." Mrs. Michaels replied. "Along with the curfew, they block access in and out of the city except for-"

Bailey tuned Mrs. Michaels out at this point. She was going from panic to full-blown hysteria. It was a miracle that when she opened her mouth to breathe that she didn't start screaming and hyperventilating. There were just so many things going on that they had missed; the curfew of the city, the city being blocked off, people have footage…

_I hope they didn't get a good look at anyone. It's going to spell nothing short of disaster. Why did everything have to happen at one time like this? _Bailey rubbed her forehead and looked over at Tapeworm.

A light sheen of sweat had settled on his forehead and he was chewing his lower lip in worry. She could tell that he was trying to figure out what to do; tell his parents about his powers and risk putting them in danger…or just keep his mouth shut and pretend that nothing was going on, while continually putting them in danger.

With elementals, it was almost always a lose-lose situation.

"What's that?"

Tapeworm snapped out of his thoughts and looked over at his mother, following her gaze down to his bag. Every now and then a side of the bag would fly out, as if it was punched; Tapeworm knew that Ursa was getting restless at this point. But there was no way for him to 'go back into Tapeworm's body' without there being a flash of light and making things even worse.

"Oh, it's just…my science project." Tapeworm explained quickly. "I was going to drop it off with Cody before we went to the gym," he reached out and grabbed onto Bailey's arm, pulling her with him. "So that's where we're going. We'll be back before the curfew, I promise."

Before his mother could say anything else, the two of them were out the door and speed walking down the sidewalk.

"This isn't good." Bailey thought out loud.

"I noticed." Tapeworm replied before sighing loudly. "Did you _have _to go and say that things would fall apart?" He asked, only slightly joking. "I mean the fact that you have Geneva and now Gattaca's powers in you, you'd think that you would figure out something would go wrong as soon as you said it."

"You know me, I'll never learn." Bailey replied just as sarcastically. Tapeworm cracked a small smile as he bent down, allowing Bailey to climb onto his back. She wrapped her arms around his neck, loosely, yet tight enough so she didn't fall off. "Are we going straight to Christian's house?" She asked as Tapeworm looked around to be sure that no one was watching.

"Yeah, at this point, I think that Zack and Cody heard about the curfews and everything and are there already." Tapeworm replied. "Hell, if the Jacksons were here, they would have dragged us back there themselves."

Bailey laughed.

Tapeworm checked once more to be sure that no one was watching them before running towards the 'meeting spot' that he and his friends had. Being able to use his enhanced running abilities, he was at the house and through the front door in less than thirty seconds.

* * *

"Christian." Christian looked up from a monitor as Core hurried down the stairs in the basement. "I know," Christian said before Core had to open his mouth. "Things are falling apart down here, we're going to have to move fast if we want to keep it from exploding in our faces." He paused and swallowed thickly. "Literally."

"Is there anything that you think that we can do?" Core moved over to a filing cabinet and started to look through it. "We're not going to be able to get much done if we don't find that file!"

"You think I don't know that?!" Christian snapped, slamming the clipboard that he was holding onto on the ground. "We each had a copy; Reed's was destroyed almost as soon as we made it, just in case, who knows what happened with yours, it may have blown up with WingzCorp." He rubbed his forehead. "And mine…things have been moved around so much, I don't think that I'll ever remember where it is."

"Well, you better, because your daughter, your son, your nieces and nephews, and their friends are going to be in even worse danger than they have been before."

Christian turned and grabbed Core by the front of his shirt and slammed him against the wall. His show of emotion caused Core to break his normal calm facade and look shocked. His eyebrows twitched and he gritted his teeth at the sharp pain that hit his back.

"If we don't find that file, _everyone that we know as well as everyone in this city __will__ die!" _He dropped Core back to his feet. "So don't tell me what I already know and just help me!"

Core shook off his friend, letting out a deep breath, waiting.

Christian shoved a few notebooks aside and then turned back to Core, looking at him.

Core nodded back in reply.

All was forgiven.

* * *

"So you heard about the curfew," Crystal noted as she turned to see Tapeworm and Bailey in the doorway of her house. She had been sitting on the stairs, waiting for the two of them. Zack and Cody were sitting on the couch, having leapt to their feet as soon as the two appeared in the doorway as well. "I thought that you would get here a bit sooner." She looked down at the moving bag. "Is that Ursa?"

"Yes," Tapeworm replied as he bent down and opened the bag, causing Ursa to poke his head out, shoving his nose into the air.

"Do you know how bad that bag smells, Master Tapeworm?" Ursa asked as he ran a paw over his forehead, taking in another breath of air. He stood up on his hand legs and hopped out of the bag. Tapeworm ignored him.

"How did you know that Ursa was in the bag?" He asked breathlessly. "Could you feel him? Is Dricer back with you?"

Crystal shook her head at both questions. "I assumed that you wouldn't have a random animal in your bag," she cracked the tiniest hint of a smile. "May I?" she asked, reaching her hands out towards Ursa. Tapeworm nodded and she bent down, taking him into her arms.

"You should think about becoming a Vet, Crys," Zack commented. "You're really good with animals."

"I've been thinking about it," Crystal replied as she looked the guardian over. "But with everything that's going on," she let out a sigh and shook her head. "I might as well forget it." She looked up and caught Zack's eye. He gave her a small, reassuring smile, which she returned, before turning back to Tapeworm. "So tell us how you got your powers back. Dad's down in the basement with Core, looking for something apparently," she paused, allowing the sounds waft up from the basement. "I think it's best if we wait to tell them what's going on after we sort through everything." She tossed her head, telling them to follow her to the kitchen. "While they're down there, Aaron moved some of the equipment to the kitchen so I can look him over."

"You really think that that's possible?" Cody asked nervously. "A couple of tests and-"

"Well, at this point, I won't know what I'm looking for until Tape tells me what happened." Crystal interrupted as she placed Ursa on the counter and took a few probes from Aaron and started to place them on Ursa's body, in the same positions she would if he was one of them.

Tapeworm quickly recounted the story, from when he got home and found Ursa being controlled, to Bailey being able to use light and darkness at the same time to help Ursa, to his powers coming back, to the curfew and the city being blocked off.

Aaron let out a loud sigh as soon as Tapeworm finished, seemingly distressed. Although you couldn't see it in his face, his sightless eyes keeping him from expressing many emotions, you could tell that he was just as nervous as everyone else. Things were rapidly changing for them and they didn't know if there was any way to stop it, if it could be stopped.

"Basically what our problem is that we _thought_ that Gattaca was the end all be all enemy we had to defeat. " Cody said after he looked over Bailey's notes. "But now he's helping Geneva, using her body as a vessel once more."

"So what if the problem wasn't Gattaca," Bailey spoke up. "What if it was something in the elemental world? I mean, we purified Gattaca, Zhane is in the hospital somewhere, recovering from it-"

"And all we have to show for it is two friends who are dead and more questions than answers!" Zack broke in harshly. "Just so everyone doesn't forget that."

"How could we?" Tapeworm shrugged.

Pain flashed through his eyes, but he otherwise stayed silent.

Crystal tapped her chin as she scan a tablet that was in her hands, listening to the others as they spoke. The levels in Ursa were just the same as they had been before, very high. Nothing out of the ordinary. But what made it that he was able to get back to Tapeworm while the others still didn't have their guardians or their powers back? She made a mental note to remind Tapeworm to ask him about it later, usually the guardians don't remember much of their transition from the elemental world to the human world; it was complicated process from what she understood. But if she could pass along the info to her father, things may be easier.

Just a bit.

"I think, at this moment in time, our biggest concern is the footage." Zack said, breaking Crystal out of her thoughts. He looked at her-which is what she was named for-crystal blue eyes before looking at everyone else, his gaze landing on his twin and staying there. "Did they get any of us clearly on film? And what happens if it falls into the wrongs hands. We already had tanks and everything come through the city when Gattaca was around. Maybe…maybe it's as worse as we thought…" he shrugged as he trailed off.

That was their biggest fear, the elemental world being completely exposed. That's why if they had an idea that there was another elemental around, they wouldn't confront them, they would stalk the person for a long time. It was possible, you had a 1 in 5 chance of being an elemental and so far they hadn't found many. But that didn't mean that they weren't there, it just mean that everyone was afraid of being caught and didn't want to oust themselves unless it was absolutely necessary.

It was smart.

But in a way, it was also stupid.

"I hate to say it," Cody cracked his knuckles. "But the fact that there's a curfew on the city and the news is starting to question what happened a few months ago…I think we're slowly being found out." He said grimly. "Reed, Christian, and Core hacked _into_ the government files to find out about the elementals for a fucking school project…it's got to be coming back to them."

"Then we're screwed if that's it." Aaron said, causing Crystal to give him a sharp, disapproving look. He merely shrugged in reply, letting the gravity of their situation cause everyone to fall silent.

"Cody's right," Bailey said. Crystal snorted as she continued to look over Ursa. Tapeworm gave a half smile, cracking his knuckles. "Speaking in statistics-"

"I'd rather you didn't speak in statistics so I can actually understand it." Zack broke in.

"The government keeps their things tightly sealed and they have the technology to trace things back very quickly." Bailey reiterated. Zack raised an eyebrow, but stayed silent. "All in all, if they haven't figured it out yet, they will. So agreeing with Aaron, we're screwed."

"Could you please _not _say 'screw' around my brother," Crystal asked, quickly tapping into her motherly tone. "It's bad enough that Riley or Rhuben taught him it, I don't need anyone else doing it."

"Personally, Crys, I think that's the least of our problems." Cody said gently.

Crystal purposefully looked away from him as she pulled the probes off of Ursa and handed him back to Tapeworm. Tapeworm gave her a smile of thanks as he placed him back on the ground. They were all silent at that moment, no one was sure what they should do or what to say. They didn't have _any _answers; all they had at this point was speculation and guesses.

Nothing.

Crystal suddenly turned to the phone and dialed in a number onto her phone and put it on speaker. Ringing filled the air and the phone was picked up after the second ring.

"Hey Crystie, what's up?" Sydney asked, his accent reaching their ears.

"I hope I didn't wake you." Crystal apologized quickly.

"No, its 2PM here, you're fine." Sydney replied. He paused for a moment. "Something tells me I'm on speaker and everyone else is there, which means that something else went on." He let out an impatient sigh. "And I thought that nothing could happen in Boston while we weren't there."

"Nice sarcasm, Syd, if I didn't notice it, I would have thought that you were serious." Cody spoke up.

"Thanks." Sydney said with a hint of pride. All of a sudden there was a clacking sound; he probably pulled up a word document on his laptop. "Now what's going on?"

"First," Bailey jumped in. "Are the others there?"

"No, they went out." Sydney said quickly. "But I'll fill them in when they get back.

"Speaking of," Bailey then turned to Crystal. "Where's Reihu?"

Crystal didn't look at her; she kept her eyes on Bailey's notebook. "Dad and Core sent him to do something top secret. We'll find out later. Can I tell him what's going on, please?"

Zack made a cat hissing sound with his mouth and laughed a little bit. "Looks like the Kitty has some claws there. Calm down, girl." His smile widened when Crystal glared at him, before reading out of the notebook. The clacking filled the air as he typed up everything that Crystal told him.

"That's… not good." Sydney managed to say as soon as he heard everything. "I really don't know what else to say, but, after this one, it's probably not a good idea to use public phones, just in case things get too close to coming back to us."

"Good idea." Zack agreed. He scratched his head as he heard more rustling come from downstairs. "You said that Core and Christian are looking for something," he said to Crystal, who nodded. "Has anyone thought that it could be back in Australia? Maybe whatever they're looking for, Reed has."

There was silence. He could tell from that silence that n one had thought about it. Even Sydney was stumped. The fact that the little boy then uttered a curse, something that he tried VERY hard not to do, let him know that he was really the only one that thought about it. Zack grinned. He even laughed.

"What's so funny?" Sydney asked curiously.

"I figured out something before the genius did." Zack's smile was the biggest one that he had since he had awakened. He hadn't smiled this much in a long time. He was so deliriously happy that he nearly giggled. "I am totally enjoying that. I'm just going to gloat here for a minute."

"Enjoy it," Sydney snarked. "It may never happen again."

"Oh believe me, I know that." Zack said his smile undaunted.

There was a lengthy pause on the other end and Cody looked at the phone, checking to see if they had been disconnected. They hadn't.

"Hello?"

"I'm still here," Sydney said as he tapped his chin. "I can't believe…I never thought of that. Cody, there's a reason that I have you as my lab partner now and again." Zack burst out laughing as Cody tried to figure out whether or not he should have been offended or not. "We'll get started on that as soon as we can. I don't know if we're going to come back anytime soon, just in case, but if we do, you know something went wrong."

"Things have gone wrong since Gattaca started Halo Syndicate by taking over people," Bailey pointed out. "It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better."

"You got that right." Sydney agreed. "I'll let the others know what's going on as soon as they get back."

"Syd, that reminds me," Tapeworm quickly spoke up. "The watches that you designed. What makes them work?"

Sydney hesitated. "I don't have time to explain that right now. Keep in touch as much as possible, if you guys get your guardians back, or if one of us do; which with everything that's going on, I'm sure is going to happen soon, we need to let each other know. And don't forget to tell Christian and Core."

"Got it." Crystal replied. "I'll call you guys later." She hung up the phone, looking pensive.

"What?" Cody asked, noticing.

"Well, if you and Zack had felt or seen Blazen and Phantom before…and Ursa is now here…" Crystal lifted her eyes to Cody's. "How is it that you guys haven't got Blazen and Phantom yet? It just makes me wonder, if the thing that was controlling Ursa is keeping them from getting to you."

Cody's eyes widened and he looked over at Zack.

They hadn't thought of that…

* * *

**A/N: **Alright, so this was a short chapter because I just got back home, so this chapter was short, but I hope that you guys still like it. So one of my main ideas of the story was mentioned in this chapter, I kind of foreshadowed it with the last chapter. I think that owlhero caught it, actually.

Next chapter has more of Reihu, the others of WingzCorp that haven't died, and the Jacksons.

Cheers,

-Riles


	8. I wouldn't know where to begin

CHAPTER SEVEN

* * *

Reihu pushed his overgrown hair out of his face as he stood in front of WingzCorp.

Having been there since the beginning of the corporation and watching Core run out on them was something that he wasn't going to forget anytime soon. It was eerie enough that he and the rest of WingzCorp were staying there before they figured out that Gattaca was behind everything that was going on. They didn't know what to do for a while; they just ate, slept, and seemed to wander around aimlessly. Part of him wanted to leave that life behind just as soon as Core had left him. He could admit that he felt betrayed, since that was all that he knew.

But when Koto had showed him what Core was really doing, he wondered if his whole life was a lie and if that he was just a pawn in Core's game. He wondered if Core really cared about hurting other people just so he could help a friend who had passed away. Reihu and the others were just a pawn in his plan of revenge (which didn't really work out that well in the first place); it was something that he was never going to forget.

Now here he was, turning around and helping Core with something that he and Christian were looking for. Was he breaking his promise to himself?

It was all too complicated.

Reihu took a deep breath before reaching out and punching in the code that was practically burned into his memory and waited for the door to slide open before he went inside. As soon as the door closed, his lion instincts kicked in and his eyes shifted back and forth as they quickly adjusted to the darkness. So far, he didn't see anyone.

He wasn't sure if anyone was there either.

He started towards his room, going slowly, not particularly in a rush. After Koto had died and everyone had buried him, WingzCorp had completely fallen apart at that point. He hadn't heard from Kuroko or Kagenui, Koto's brother and cousin, and he hadn't seen anyone from the DarkLion. Not even a peep from the DragonGang or Spirit X. But that didn't surprise him, one of the main things about WingzCorp was that you had to be very secretive and it was better not to establish communication with them unless it was absolutely necessary.

Now that the government was possibly on their tails, he hoped that Core was able to get into contact with everyone.

Reihu arrived at what used to be his room and went inside, dropping his bag onto his bed. He looked at the empty bed that was next to him, reserved for Ruliyan, and wondered how they could have lived in their conditions without thinking that what they were doing was wrong.

_I guess that's what happens when you're taken at such a young age, _Reihu reasoned as he sat down, gripping his hands on the side of the bed. His long nails lightly poked into the fabric underneath him. _You did things without question because you were trained that way._

All of a sudden, a foul odor entered his nose and he whipped around, hands out, to see Kuroko standing behind him. "Just wondering, do you guys _always_ smell like that?" He asked, relaxing as he waved a hand in front of his face, relaxing.

Kuroko merely let out a slight growl, his golden-yellow eyes looking over Reihu, as if making sure that he really was the boy that was standing in front of him. Finally, he lifted a hand and scratched his neck. "So Core asked you to come by as well?"

Reihu nodded. "I'm sure that the rest of you are here?"

"Cindy and Kotaro are the only ones that aren't here yet." Kuroko said as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Frankly, I'm surprised you came. I figured that your new life with those people would be too hard for you to pass up."

Reihu wasn't bothered in the slightest. "You know their names," he said as he slid by Kuroko and started to walk out of the room. "I mean, since the whole time we were trying to capture them to 'keep them safe'" he used air quotes around the words. Kuroko nodded in agreement, both still put off of the fact that they were essentially used against their will. Though they weren't going to say it out loud, they learned long ago that expressing their thoughts about things like that didn't help you. "Adapting to our new lives isn't hard." He changed the subject. "Besides, if Core needs something to be done, and he was this frantic about it, it must be something big."

"I got that feeling as well." Kuroko agreed.

Reihu watched him as the two walked to Core's old office. Reihu was sure that everyone was gathered there; it would be fitting. It was where they were taken when WingzCorp was first put together and they were recruited, and it was the last place they were together when they figured out that Core had run out on them.

Stretching his arms over his head, Reihu slowly bent down until he was walking on all fours. It was second nature to him and at times he wondered if he should just let the lion powers that were fused to his human DNA to take over so he could live as a wild animal. It would probably make things easier, but like everything else, he was too used to being half-and-half. He couldn't leave the…friends…that he had now.

It would be too hard.

"We're waiting on two more people," Kuroko said as he entered Core's office. Reihu looked around at the BlackWolves, DarkLions, and Spirit X. They all looked the same as they had when they split up, if not a little bit older and more…guarded. Despite the two that were missing, Reihu knew that there were still a bit more that were missing.

Raylen, of Spirit X, they hadn't seen in _years_. He was hardly around when Reihu first started at WingzCorp, but he had interacted with him once or twice. No one knew where he went or if he was ever going to come back, Core never spoke of him so in return, no one else did. It was like he dropped off the face of the earth.

"So what are we doing here?" Tori asked sharply. "What did we need to come back to this place for?"

Reihu noticed all eyes turning to him and he gulped lightly, suddenly feeling like a kid again. He knew that he was the only know that knew what they were going to be looking for, as he was the one that was that close to Core…Nathan now.

"Alright," Reihu let out a deep breath. "Core was a very secretive man," he said as he walked around to the back of Core's desk, grabbing everyone's attention.

"No shit." Caos murmured.

Reihu smiled a little at his division member and then looked serious once more. "And we were never sure what it was that he was doing when he wasn't working us hard. We don't have elemental powers, but he used each and every one of us to try and help him understand what elementals could do." He cracked his knuckles loudly, being sure that his claws didn't poke the skin of his palms. "But no matter how much research that he does, there's always going to be a few things that they don't understand. And the biggest thing they don't know if the limit of an elementals power."

"So?" Rilian shook his head.

"So, a long time ago, Core, Christian, and Reed figured out that there was something that could be used to make an elemental even stronger. But now that things are starting to fall apart around us, especially with the fight with Gattaca that happened recently, they need to find the files that they have on it and find the objects they're looking for to be sure that the government doesn't get to it first."

Reihu took a deep breath, wondering if he should go ahead and do what Core asked him to do. That was the difference this time, he was asked, not told, to try and help him. They weren't sure if the balance between Earth and the Elemental World would ever be restored to its original value. But they had to be sure that the government didn't know specifically who hacked them in the first place and what kind of research they were doing.

"Have you ever heard of something called an Element Stone?"

* * *

"So Christian is looking for something but we don't know what," Noah said as he pulled his legs up onto the couch, tucking them underneath him. He rested his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands. "And there's the possibility that we could get our powers and our guardians back, but if we do, our guardians _may _be possessed by something?"

"Yes," Sydney nodded. "That's everything that Crystal, Tapeworm, Zack, Cody, and Bailey told me." He closed his laptop and set it down on the coffee table in front of him. "I sent my findings to Julius and Maddie as well, I'm sure they'd like to talk about it when they get home from work."

"You know, considering work is so important." Patrick said sarcastically.

"It is if you're trying to keep a low profile. Not that's easy since people are coming up to us on the street all the time," Riley reminded him. She was leaning in an armchair, sitting in it sideways, her tanned legs dangling over the side. She moved her hands up to her wet, stringy hair, and started to braid it absentmindedly. "What do you think could possess our guardians?"

"If I had to guess," Rhuben said slowly, as if she were thinking about it as she spoke. "It's something in the element world that we haven't come in contact with." She sat up straight on the other end of the couch, her feet resting on Patrick's back from where he was lying on the floor. The five of them were sitting in the living room of their house back in their home of Sydney, Australia, brainstorming. As soon as Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, and Noah had come in from the beach, Sydney quickly filled them in on everything that they had missed from their cousin's phone call. "You know how Core managed to get DalFang and DeathLiger before they could come to me and Riles after we awakened? What if it's something like that? He had that kind of ability, someone else might have been able to figure it out and use it as well."

"Last I checked Core was on our side now." Patrick mumbled, lightly kicking his legs back and forth so the heels of his feet hit his butt with each kick. "So I don't think it would be him double-crossing us. You know," he flipped his hair out of his face. "If his story about wanting to capture us to keep us safe as a favor for Dad is true," He added thoughtfully. "But what would that glowing thing be? If it was controlling the guardians out of that, could we figure out who is behind it by getting the…thing and running tests on it?"

"I thought of that," Sydney admitted. "And it seems to me that that could be more trouble than it's worth. Especially with so many different elements that are being used in the Element World. I wouldn't know where to begin. You know, except for how Bailey is now able to use Geneva's _and_ Gattaca's powers, but that's a whole other story."

"That'd be a first." Riley remarked.

"I know." Sydney agreed as he shook his head. "So, if one of our guardians came to us, and they were possessed as well, knock on wood," he reached forward and knocked on the coffee table. "Then we don't have a choice but to wait to get back to Boston to get the sample."

"Do you think we'll be able to get back to Boston?" Rhuben asked, looking concerned. "It's like you said, they have that curfew, the news footage, and things are slowly falling apart there. If we can't talk on our home phones or in public to them back in Boston, it's only a matter of time until our cell phones and laptops have to be shut off." She raised her right hand and pointed at her watch. "These aren't working either."

"Yeah, there must be something wrong with it," Sydney looking annoyed with himself. "Something I didn't catch when I was making it. Some sort of bug." He added to himself.

"Ok, well, what about Uncle Christian looking for something," Riley said, changing the subject. "What could that be?"

"He's a scientist, sis," Noah pointed out. "There's so much that he could be looking for, we wouldn't know where to begin." He shrugged. "Besides, Sydney already looked over his computer after we got it back from the police, there was nothing on there. Not even in his locked folders."

"Probably to keep Mom and the rest of us from finding it." Rhuben said. She paused and then recounted her earlier statement. "That wouldn't make sense though, Mom knew about the elements before Dad did. And Dad did research on it, using his profession as a Rocket Scientist to cover it, like Uncle Christian and Core did. So if it was anything that he had, he wouldn't be dumb enough to leave it on his personal computer." She motioned to her baby brother. "Besides, like you just said, Syd would have found it when he checked."

"Mhm," Sydney agreed.

Patrick sat up on his heels, knocking Rhuben's feet off of him, his eyes growing wide. "But what if it wasn't on his personal computer?" He asked.

"What?" Riley wrinkled her nose.

"You just said that he used being a Rocket Scientist as a cover to hide the experiments that he was doing for elementals, so no one would question the times that he may have stayed at the lab late," Patrick said, the tempo of his voice quickening as he went. He was getting excited at his epiphany. "Mom probably knew the reasons why and the times that she would go visit him at work and couldn't take us were because he was showing her what he found."

"And?" Rhuben waved a hand, urging him to continue.

"I get it," Noah blurted out suddenly. "Why would Dad leave all of his findings on his personal computer? If anyone from his work got a hold of it, they would have everything there in that one place. What if he had it on his _work_ _computer _at the Institution? They're scientists; they have the technology to hide anything that they need on those things."

"Which means what we're looking for is possibly there!" Patrick concluded.

Riley leapt to her feet, her wet hair smacking him in the face. "Be in the car in five minutes!" She declared. "I'll call Julius now." She turned to Sydney. "And be sure that you get all of that down so we can get it to Crystal, maybe Uncle Christian did the same thing. She and Cody should be able to figure out how to get it." She then grinned. "Maybe Bailey could help as well," she added, mostly as a joke.

Patrick smiled as Noah rolled his eyes.

"Something must be wrong with me," Sydney murmured to himself as Rhuben hurried to get the car keys. He grabbed his computer and started to load it into its case, being sure that it was strapped in tight with the buckles and clasps that were inside.

"What makes you say that?" Noah asked with an amused lift to his tone.

"First _Zack_ thought of something before I did and now _Patrick_?" He pouted. "I must be losing it."

* * *

**A/N: **More questions and fewer answers. I have a habit of doing that, but it makes the story that much more exciting don't you think?

Cheers,

-Riles


	9. His eyes aren't red

CHAPTER EIGHT

* * *

Cody let out a sigh as he slowly moved his arms in a tai-chi move. He found it to be very helpful when he still had his powers, it helped him mentally and physically, and it even made him a bit stronger. He did it now just so there was a sense of normalcy in his life. He had first seen tai chi moves being done online, searching for a way to stay healthy while he was on the ship and didn't want to be embarrassed at the gym, Zack had made fun of him at first, but after he had seen how his powers had evolved, the taunting wore off.

It was like he was moving through water. The movements were slow and calculated and his breathing matched it as well. He was calm, cool, and collected, moving along with the breeze that passed through Liberty Park. Cody took in the scent through a deep breath in his nose, the scent of pine tickling his nose, reminding him of all of the times that he had spent at the park having picnics with his family or hanging out with his friends or sparring with them.

He couldn't help but think back to their last battle against Gattaca, part of him, at the time, thought that the battle was way too easy. He and Zack had _just_ learned about the prophecy and the next thing he knew, his friends had seemingly switched sides from a plan they had concocted _months_ in advanced, and Gattaca was gone.

Simple.

It was too simple.

Cody closed his eyes as he let out another breath, slowly extending his right leg in front of him. Where was he? Oh yes, _then_ they thought that their guardians were taken away from them along with their powers and they decided to live like normal teenagers. The Earth decided to laugh at them at that point, and now everything was slowly coming back, but with a twist, their guardians were being controlled by someone or something. And the government was on their tails as well as people starting to find out about them on the news.

Cody faltered as he spun on the balls of his feet, almost falling over. His eyes snapped open and he quickly shook his head, getting back into focus. Balance was the key; all of his worried thoughts weren't keeping him balanced.

His arms dropped to his sides as he thought about the prophecy once more.

_The one with the eyes red as fire, the one with the eyes shocking as sea, the ones whose inheritance the white pure blade. To voyage eighteen years from since they'd come, or the world in their hands would cease to become_.

"Wait," Cody frowned as he slowly lowered his arms, opening his eyes. He thought hard. "Eyes as red as fire?" He shook his head as something slowly came to him. "His eyes aren't red." He murmured. His fingers started to flutter against his sides, his heart thudding against his chest. "Zack's eyes aren't red, not even when he's using a lot of power."

Cody reached down and started to roll up his yoga mat, his quick movements causing it to become bunched up. In exasperation, he picked it up, violently folded it, and grabbed his shoes before he started to lightly jog out of the park, running only when he hit the concrete sidewalk.

_Zack's eyes aren't red_…

The thought come running through his head until he finally came to the startling conclusion. _The Prophecy didn't come true…_

* * *

**A/N: **Sorry this chapter was short, but I needed to do it after I realized the same thing that Cody did in this chapter. So that's why it's sort of a filler, but it's still important to everything.

On that note, I have been asked recently to start up my episode collections _Grow Up_ and _Just Another Day in Paradise _once more_. _I've thought about doing that for a while, but I have some reservations about it. If I did start them up again, they'd be updated very, VERY slowly but there were a lot of storylines that I thought would have been good with my characters in it (for example the SLOD episode: Party On!). But there were others I didn't like at all or thought were pointless to the series and I don't really like leaving them out. So, your thoughts on that would be appreciated.

Cheers,

-Riles


	10. I'll bet she was just like you

CHAPTER NINE

* * *

"Dad why won't you tell me what you're looking for?" Crystal rested her arms on her knees as she sat, perched on the top step of the basement stairs. She watched as her father picked up a manila folder and started to flip through it, seeming to ignore her. "I can help!" She adjusted the light blue head-band that was holding her hair back out of her face. "If you and Core don't really have any ideas, maybe I can think of something."

Her mouth twisted to the side as she watched her father put down the manila folder and move to another part of the basement. Core was the only one that had slowed down, seeming to mull over her offer.

"Maybe Aaron can help too," Crystal added. "We know that there's something different about him, even though he's not an Elemental, he can usually do something like this." She let out a huff, her hair blowing off of her forehead before gently floating back down as she continued not to get a response. "Do you want me to get Zack and Cody?"

"No," Christian said slowly. "It's best if we leave them out of it for now."

"He speaks," Crystal tossed her hands up into the air before walking all the way down the steps and across the room, stopping at her father. She crossed her arms over her chest, mimicking his stance, and leaned towards him, tilting her head so she could see directly into his face. "What's going on, Dad?"

Christian managed a small smile. "I should have listened to your mother. Kristin always said that you were going to get her determination."

Crystal smiled. "What did you think it was?"

"My big mouth."

"Actually," Core spoke up, sitting down in one of the large office chairs that were in the room. "I would give Reed that one."

Christian smiled and nodded before turning back to his daughter. "Listen, Crys, what I'm looking for, right now isn't the time for me to tell you guys. I wouldn't even tell Zack and Cody, no matter if it did or didn't directly deal with them." Crystal nodded slowly; she understood that there were some things that her father would tell them on his own time in his own terms. It was frustrating at times though, she had a laptop that he had filled with all of the research that he, Reed, and Core had done years ago, but everything new that he found out, he would wait a bit before telling them.

"What I can tell you is that if we don't find it soon, we're screwed." He said, looking directly into her eyes so she knew that what he was saying was serious. "Like, even worse than the news having footage of you guys."

"Like," Crystal thought for a moment, not sure if she wanted to say the words out loud. "Having to go on the run…again?"

"If the time comes, yes." Christian replied.

Crystal nodded, looking at her feet. "I understand, Daddy." She said and then dropped her arms, placing her hands on her hips. "I just hope that it doesn't come to that." She reached out and gave him a hug before walking back up the stairs. She noticed Zack sitting in the living room, stretched out on the couch, a book on his lap; he looked like he was asleep. Crystal smiled to herself and quietly walked over before slapping her hands on the back of the couch.

Zack jerked, shooting his head up and tilted his chin so he could look down at the book again. Crystal could see his ears turning red, knowing that he was caught.

"There's a reason why you have the guardian that's a tiger, Crys." Zack commented as he made room for her on the couch.

Crystal merely shrugged in reply as she moved a pillow to her lap, curling her legs up underneath her. "What's bothering you?" She asked before leaning over to look at the book. "Homework?" Zack nodded and closed the book, tossing it aside. "What's wrong?" she asked, after studying him for a moment.

"I was thinking about quitting school." Zack replied after a moment. He moved his hair from his face. "It doesn't even seem to be worth it anymore. Not after everything that's been going on." He shrugged. "Besides, I wouldn't have time to do it if things ended up getting worse." He sighed, tilting his head back again. "But Cody would kill me."

"Who cares what he thinks?"

"That's a nice way to put it," Tapeworm commented as he and Bailey walked into the room. Crystal raised an eyebrow at him and he raised a hand, showing that he was holding onto a key. He sat down on the couch across the room from them. "But I can see where she's coming from." He sat down and crossed his legs. "In the long run, you have to stop thinking about what Cody or your mom and dad think and make a decision on your own. I mean," he shrugged. "You did a great job with it when we were fighting."

Zack gave a hint of a smile.

"But Zack, leaving school," Bailey sighed, looking down at her hands. "It's a tough decision to make. It might be the wrong one." She seemed to be talking to herself more than the others. She bit her lower lip and studied her hands, gently closing them into fists before opening them.

"Whatever." Zack grunted, resting his arms behind his head. "I don't want to talk about it anymore."

Everyone's attention turned to the front door as it was flung open and suddenly slammed shut. They watched as Cody raced into the living room, dropping his yoga mat to the ground. He was gasping for air, trying to say something at the same time. They watched as Cody slowly regained control of his breathing. He took a few deep breaths and then stood up straight, moving his hair out of his face.

"Dude," Zack commented. "You're sweating."

Cody turned and glared at Zack, who merely raised his hands in reply. Cody took a gulp of air, waiting a second before speaking. "The prophecy didn't come true." He said. The others exchanged glances and he rushed to explain. "The battle that we had with Gattaca, it was too easy. The prophecy talked about one with eyes as red as fire and one with eyes as blue as the ocean. No one's eyes are red." He wiped sweat off of his forehead, placing his hands on his hips. "What If the first part of the whole thing was to restore Gattaca? What if there's something higher than Geneva and Gattaca and that it's taking control of our guardians when they try to come back to us. Maybe," he turned to Zack. "Maybe that's why Blazen and Phantom haven't come back."

"If that were the case," Crystal spoke up. "How would that explain Dricer not coming back?"

"I don't know." Cody replied shortly. He could easily detect the annoyance in her voice, even though she tried to hide it.

"Just asking," Crystal shrugged. "It seems like you everything. Or at least act like it."

"Crys," Cody turned to her, annoyed. "Your passive-aggressiveness isn't needed right now."

Bailey kept her mouth shut. She looked over at Zack and Tapeworm and they seemed to have decided the same thing, as they seemed to be busy looking anywhere else but at her. She could feel the tension in the room rise; everyone knew what it was about. It just made her feel even more out of place with them than she already did. It was bad enough that she had to deal with Geneva's and Gattaca's powers and now know how she was able to use both of their powers or why, it was hard having to try and become friends with people who had been together for almost their whole lives, it was hard trying to help with the whole elemental deal when she wasn't one herself.

It was just hard.

Crystal's eyes flashed and she opened her mouth to reply, but stopped suddenly as Tapeworm stiffened on his seat beside Bailey. Bailey's eyes flashed over to him and she watched as his head lowered and his eyes started to shift back and forth. She recognized that look; it was the look that they had gotten whenever Koto or any of the other guys at WingzCorp came around. But they were gone now, Bailey's nose wrinkled as she thought about it. So what could be causing him discomfort that time?"

"Talk to us, Tape," Zack said, quickly reverting into what Cody called his 'leader-mode'. Even when he didn't have his own powers, his natural leader instinct didn't go away. "What's going on?"

"It's…hard to explain…" Tapeworm said slowly. "I just have a familiar feeling."

"What are you feeling?" Bailey prompted him. "Tell us, we'll be able to help you if we know what's going on." She moved her hands to her arms as a cold draft suddenly filled the room. She ignored it the best that she could, watching Tapeworm's face, but soon she couldn't stop herself from shivering, her teeth starting to chatter. It was _cold_. Only Zack and Crystal didn't seem to be affected by it, they just sat on the couch, looking at their friends with odd expressions, watching as they shivered.

"Crys!" Aaron came running into the room, immediately finding his sister. "Something's up!" He cried.

"No, really?" Zack asked, motioning to his twin. He got up and placed a hand on his brother's arm as he continued to shiver pathetically. "You're freezing, dude!" Once again, Cody slowly turned his eyes to Zack in a glare.

"Hey," Christian and Core appeared at the top of the stairs, shivering as well. "What's going on?" Christian hurried to his daughter as well. "You're not cold?" He asked.

Crystal shook her head.

Core moved to Crystal's side, looking hard at her. "What was it like when you awakened?" He asked her.

She immediately got the connection and turned to Zack. "You're not cold either," she said slowly. "Do you think that you could be getting Blazen back?" She didn't want to get his hopes up, just in case. Things weren't going as well as they had hoped lately, and things could easily go one way or another with them. "I think that, like with Tape, Dricer may be coming back to me. I have a feeling though, that he may be controlled as well."

"W-w-w-where d-d-do you th-th-th-think he i-i-i-i-is?" Bailey asked, her jaw starting to ache from how badly she was shivering.

Crystal closed her eyes, thinking about it as hard as she could. She focused, trying to align herself with her guardian, trying to feel what he was feeling, see what he was seeing. Trying to get in tune with his thoughts and experiences.

"The Tipton." She finally replied.

"G-G-G-Great." Cody held his arms close to his body. He started to jump up and down, trying to bring heat back to his body. "E-E-E-Even with-th-th-thout a lot of p-people living there n-n-now, there are cameras everywh-wh-wh-where." He grumbled.

"Not unless you know how to break _into_ a camera system," Zack replied with a mischievous smile.

* * *

"Zack, how am I not surprised that you know how to do this?" Bailey asked as she watched Zack stand at the main system for the cameras in the Tipton, a screwdriver in his mouth and one in his hand.

Zack spit the screwdriver into his free hand. "All of the times that I would sneak down into the game room and play a game for free, Mr. Moseby started to catch on," he explained, twisting the screwdriver in the console. "So, I went to the library and learned how to hack into a camera system." He paused, turning to Bailey. "Just don't tell Cody that I know how to do this, he would to lecture me on morals and all that crap."

Bailey giggled. "Got it." She agreed.

"Ok," Zack jumped down from the small ledge and tossed the screwdrivers into the base of a potted plant. He went over to the door and stuck his head out, looking around the lobby of the Tipton hotel. Esteban was probably still delivering some bags, as the front desk was still clear. He waved Bailey over and the two quietly left the office, closing the door behind them. "It's only a matter of time until Esteban or any of the Security goes back there and sees that the monitors are down. So we don't have much time."

The two hurried across the lobby and into the elevator. Zack jabbed the elevator call button and when it arrived, the two got inside. Almost as soon as the doors closed and the elevator started it ascent to the 23rd floor, Zack felt his eyes closing. Once again, he felt very hot and started to sweat. But in less time than before, he felt at home in it again. Zack knew that Blazen was closer to him that time.

"Zack?" From far away, he could hear Bailey's voice calling to him. Steam filled the elevator and Bailey's voice became tinged with fear. "Zack?"

Zack looked ahead of him, a red glow started to appear and before he knew it, Blazen was floating in front of him, his wings slowly moving up and down. The two looked at each other and Zack could see that…Blazen wasn't completely there. He seemed to be flickering, like the snow that you would get on a TV channel that you didn't have the signal for. Blazen flashed in and out of focus repeatedly, but Zack could still hear him speaking.

"Zack, I don't have much time to say this," Blazen said, sounding as if he was trying hard to keep his appearance. "Cody's suspicions about the prophecy, he was right. It hasn't been fulfilled. Something else is going on."

"Blazen," Zack reached out to touch him, but his hand moved right through his body. He felt warmth on his hand where it went through him. "Do you know who it is? Who's controlling you? Is he keeping you from talking to me?"

"Yes…a lot of…control….can't break it…" Blazen's words started to become choppy.

Bailey watched, her eyes widened. It was times like these she wished she continued to keep her notepad and pencil with her, so she could jot down exactly what she was watching. But she was smart, she had a near photographic memory. Besides, she reasoned, it wasn't like she was going to forget this anytime soon.

"_Things will become clear to you soon."_

Thanks Geneva, Bailey tried not to let her frustration show in her face. She didn't want to take Zack out of his moment with his guardian.

"Blazen," Zack noticed his guardian started to disappear. His outline the only thing left before it gradually disappeared. His arm fell to his side and he stared straight ahead, his eyes hollow. The elevator doors dinged open and Bailey put her arm around Zack, gently leading him off of the elevator.

"What happened?" Crystal immediately noticed his demeanor, concern evident in her eyes.

"I-I don't know," Zack replied, slowly coming back to his senses. He turned away. "I saw Blazen, but I couldn't get to him. He said that something actually is controlling the guardians."

"Then they must be fighting back," Cody realized. "If Ursa came back already and Dricer is trying to get here." He made a face. "Ugh, I wish Tape stayed, he'd be able to help us."

"No," Zack shook his head. "It's better if he stays back at the house, just in case whatever is controlling Dricer might try and take possession of Ursa again." He winced, as if not liking to boss Cody around, but Cody slowly nodded, seeing that his brother made sense. He turned to Crystal. "Do you feel anything?"

"Yes," Crystal nodded and then turned and started to walk down the hallway. "He's waiting for me up on the roof."

"The roof?" Bailey repeated under her breath. Yep, nothing can be easy with things like this. Something big must be up if he's appearing at the roof of the Tipton. Before it was in Tapeworm's house. Maybe they're coming back to the places that mean the most to their vessels."

"I'm pretty sure that Crystal didn't spend a lot of time on the roof of the Tipton, Bailey." Zack replied in a scoffing tone.

"I think she means the places they were at the most, because Crys and Rhu and the others were _always_ at the Tipton hotel." Cody corrected his brother. "We were always hanging out there and that's where we went to talk when something went up. So it's symbolical, it makes sense."

The four then fell into silence as they continued to the top of the Tipton hotel. They weren't afraid of anyone being up there swimming in the rooftop pool. It was almost November; it would be too cold for anyone to want to stay up for there for too long. Crystal hesitated at the door before reaching out and pushing it open. As she did so, she ducked to the ground and rolled away as there was a loud roar.

Bailey jammed her hands over her ears, ducking to the ground with Zack and Cody, the three of them still in the doorway. She kept her eyes open and watched as Crystal fell into a fighting stance, a Chinese style stance that she recognized, and backed away as Dricer turned to her, his white-blue coat gleaming in the sun. Dricer started to stalk towards her, causing Crystal to back further away from the door.

Without thinking, Bailey rushed forward and grabbed an abandoned pool skimmer that was by the door. She twisted off the net and looked at the metal spike on the other end. She raised it above her head and rushed forward.

"Bailey, don't!" Zack and Cody called in unison, both diving forward to try and catch her. But she was too far out of their reach.

With his keen sense of hearing, Dricer turned towards Bailey, just in time to watch Bailey swing the pool skimmer, catching Dricer across the shoulder. His roar of pain and fury blocked out Crystal's cry of pain. She moved her hand to her left shoulder, squeezing her eyes shut as a gash appeared, dripping blood down her arm and onto the ground. Dricer raised a paw, ready to hit Bailey with it, but Crystal ran forward, grabbing his attention again. He turned and hit her with his paw, the blow knocking her off of her feet and causing her to crash onto a pool chair.

"Bailey, come on!" Cody waved her over. As soon as she was by her side, he grabbed onto her arm forcefully. "If you hurt a guardian, you hurt their master as well."

_She heard a cry of pain and hurried out of the office to see Tapeworm on his back, holding Ursa's jaws away from his face, his arms shaking from the effort. Ursa was snarling and swiping his claws at his Master. One of his claws had managed to hit Tapeworm on the side, sending blood splattering on the wall. _

"_I could use some help here," he grunted, spotting her out of the corner of his eye._

"I didn't know," she stammered, shaking her head. "I didn't see Ursa hit Tape before." But she did know that, she had it in her notes. She shook her head frantically. This wasn't good. She was starting to forget things in the heat of a battle. She wasn't acting like she normally would. It was more than disconcerting, it was scary.

"We can't do anything but wait and watch, not unless she asks for help." Zack said breathlessly. He was starting to sweat over the situation.

The three watched as Crystal slowly pushed herself up from the pool chair and getting to her feet, falling into a fighting stance once more. She waited for Dricer to take another job at her and she jumped up, significantly shorter than she could before, and drove her foot into the area right above his paw. When she landed on the ground, she stumbled back and hobbled onto her right foot before kneeling down to her left. Dricer managed to send another swipe towards her, and she brought her arms up to block, her forearms getting slashed.

Her face turned pale as a sheet and she started to back away, blood lightly splattering on the ground as she moved away from him. The two went back and forth for a while, every hit that Crystal would put on Dricer would cause him pain, but it would cause her even greater pain. Soon she was almost swaying on her feet, but the others could tell she wasn't going to give up anytime soon. It wasn't in her nature.

Crystal gritted her teeth and held her right hand up in the air. All of a sudden, her bow and quiver appeared in her hands. It glowed light blue, the light getting brighter and brighter as she pulled her arm back, it gaining power as she pulled her arm back.

She let out a cry of effort as she let go of the arrow, it shot forward and landed right in the middle of Dricer's right shoulder. As he roared again, he sounded sad, not angry.

"She's getting some of her power back," Zack noted. "Or else she wouldn't have been able to call her weapon." He licked his lips. "There must be something we can do." All of a sudden, the four of them could hear a whirring sound.

Like blades slicing through the air.

Instinctively, they all looked up and saw a helicopter heading their way.

"Yeah, we got to get her to use her full powers," Zack said, starting to sweat all over again. "And _fast._"

Cody thought quickly. What could he do? Their powers always seemed to stem from desperation of trying to help someone or something. It was desperation to save people. What could they use here to get her desperate to use her powers again? He had an idea, but he was sure that it was going to result in him being punched in the stomach later on. It was the only thing that he could do though; the only thing that he knew would push her buttons.

"So," he called loudly towards Crystal. Her eyes moved over to him. "What would your mom think if she saw you like this? She knew about elementals, I'm sure she fought a few in her day. I bet she would think that you were weak."

Crystal's arms dropped and she looked hard at him before dodging Dricer's blow. She jumped onto the edge of the pool and then jumped backwards as Dricer leapt towards her again. When his paws hit the water, he hissed and backed up quickly.

"Then again, she could be proud. Before she met your Dad I bet she acted like you did." Cody tried one last thing that he thought would probably break her. "I think she must have been pretty cold. Kind of like you."

"Thanks." Crystal said shortly. She gritted her teeth, her eyes flashing as she took a step back, allowing Dricer to stalk towards her. She wasn't going to be his mouse, even if she didn't have her powers anymore, even if she was fighting against her guardian, she was going to use every natural instinct that she remembered. "But flattery will get you nowhere." Her hands shook with anger as Dricer approached her once more. She could see something glowing in the middle of his forehead. "I knew that you could be vindictive, Cody, but this is fucking ridiculous."

"See what I mean," Cody continued, ignoring Bailey's and Zack's confused glances. "I'll bet she was just like you. Cold and selfish."

Crystal turned and gritted her teeth as she reared back and smacked Dricer on the cheek as he leapt at her. As she had put her hand forward and it connected with her face, her fist had become encrusted in ice. The blow nearly knocked her off her feet as it reverberated back into her own body; it glowed a light blue. She could feel her strength returning, but unfortunately, it didn't move fast enough to keep her face from bruising.

Dricer let out a cross between a whimper and a roar as he fell heavily onto his side. Crystal rubbed her cheek as she shook out her hand, the ice falling off of her fist in flecks of slush. She turned to Cody and fixed him with a hard stare.

"You did that on purpose." She said evenly.

Cody shrugged. "It was just a theory."

"A theory that worked!" Bailey cried her eyes wide with excitement. She moved over to Crystal and grabbed onto her hand, her fingers sliding over the slush that was falling off of her hand. "Crystal, you were awesome!"

"Good job, Crys." Zack added with a nod. Crystal felt for him, she could see the disappointment in his eyes. It must have been hard to see Blazen again and still not be able to get to him.

"You got your powers back!" Bailey continued. "Although," her excited expression changed. "I don't really know how that happened. The laws of science don't make sense here, though I doubt it would as it compares to things about Elementals." She rubbed her chin. "Maybe anger has something to do with it." She mused out loud. "The manifestation of your anger turned to the energy to tap back into your powers."

"If that were the case, Riles would have gotten DalFang back by now." Crystal replied and pulled her hand out of Bailey's grasp. She hurried over to Dricer, who turned back to his small form from using up so much power, and cradled him in her arms. She then reached down into the grass and picked up an object. "I think this is what we're looking for." She announced, turning back around.

It looked to be in the shape of a teardrop, with a small circle on the inside. As she held onto it, the bright glow that it had emitted slowly went away. It looked like a regular gem in her hand, but they all knew that it wasn't just a gem. Things couldn't be that easy for them.

It never was.

"What is it?" Zack asked, squinting his eyes to get a better look at it. He didn't believe that something _that tiny_ could cause their guardians to go out of control like that.

"Something to do some research on." Cody said grimly.

* * *

**A/N: **Chapters get longer after this one as well as there being more fight scenes. More questions will be answered and like in the last story, there will be looks into the past with Core, Christian, Ruriko, and Kristin. The story still focuses mainly on Bailey, though at this point it doesn't seem like it. I hope you guys liked this chapter.

Cheers,

-Riles


	11. I'm tired of questions

CHAPTER TEN

* * *

Bailey frowned as she stood over her suitcase, trying to get the zipper closed. She was packing up, it was her last day in Boston, and she was going to be going back to Yale the next day. Part of her wondered if it was even worth it. Having similar thoughts to Zack, she wondered if anything was even worth it anymore. They were getting their powers back and the prophecy hadn't come true yet, so that meant that there was something big that they were going to have to face. She didn't want to be away at school when that happened, if that happened, and not be able to help her friends when they needed it.

She sighed, moving her hair out of her face.

"Need help?"

Bailey turned as Cody walked into the room, his hands in the pockets of his jeans, his gaze to the floor. Bailey gave him a smile and a nod, turning back to her suitcase. The two of them didn't want to talk about the elephant in the room; her leaving. It would just make everything that much harder.

"A lot of help, actually." Bailey reached out and smacked the top of her suitcase, taking a step back. "I can't get this thing closed."

Cody moved forward and opened the suitcase, looking inside. "That's just because you didn't pack your clothes for optimal space." He held his hands apart and moved them back and forth over the shape of the suitcase. "If I can calculate the dimensions of this bag, not including the size of your shoes and your toiletries, I should be able to compute a way for it to fit completely."

Bailey smiled before crossing her arms over her chest and sitting down on the bed next to her suitcase. Cody hesitated before sitting down next to her, putting his arm around her. "Hey, what's wrong?" He asked her gently.

"I was just thinking about everything that's been happening lately." Bailey said, her eyes narrowing. "Tape getting his powers back, Crys getting hers, me being able to communicate with Geneva and _now_ Gattaca, it doesn't really make sense. I've written everything down, that's been happening, and I can't find a reason as to why it's all happening right now, especially with the government finding everything out." She squeezed her eyes shut before looking at Cody, eyes wide with fear. "We could go to jail or face major criminal charges."

"Bailey, I doubt having powers is going to get us sent to jail." Cody said, resisting the urge to sound sarcastic. "We didn't do anything wrong and we didn't _ask_ for these powers to come to us, but they did, and they did for a reason. Maybe we're supposed to try and keep the government from finding out. I don't know, we never really knew who our big enemy was."

"Then how does that explain who is getting their powers back and why?" Bailey sounded exasperated. "And what's keeping the others from getting them to come back? Are the guardians directly related to the powers that you have? Or is it always in you and you just to re-awaken them?"

"Well," Cody moved his arm from Bailey's shoulders and held onto her hand. He squeezed it tightly, as if he wanted to be sure that she wasn't going to get away. He had an unrecognizable, unreadable look on his face. "That might be it. When we first met the Jacksons, they had been awakened for years at that point. From what Sydney told me, though I don't know if this is really the reason, they stuck around us because they knew of strong elementals that were in Boston. They were there, and probably helped, Zack and I awaken when we first started to fight against WingzCorp.

"At the time, Zack and I thought that Riley and Rhuben were a lot stronger than we were, and they were, before we came into our full power. When Crystal came to Boston as well, finding her father, the Jacksons' thoughts of Zack and I being the strongest elementals was true." He paused, thinking really hard. "I think…because of the studies that have been done when they've found that one in every 5 people are elementals…I think the only reason we haven't met that many is because not all of them have awakened. I think the awakened ones are the ones that bring up that statistic. I think everyone has the ability to be an elemental, but they don't know how to tap into that power.

"I don't really know if that makes sense, I was just thinking out loud."

"Actually, it makes sense in a way." Bailey agreed.

Cody noted her tone. "You sound surprised."

"I am, a little." Bailey paused. "It may turn out to be an apt analogy."

Cody rolled his eyes slightly. "You're only saying 'apt analogy' to remind me that you _might_ be smarter than I am." He teased. Their eyes locked, and then both looked away, smiling in embarrassment.

"I'm not sorry, you know." He said quietly. "I mean, wrong time, wrong place, and all, but I'm still not sorry."

"You mean…"

"Yeah."

"No, me either." Bailey said. "I know that you're thinking, what about Moose? I never really liked him that way." She noticed Cody's jaw clench at her ex-boyfriend's name.

"Really?"

"Well. Yeah. What about you?"

He shook his head and winced regretfully. Then he said, "But it was the first time I meant it." A comfortable silence fell between them. After a while, Cody turned towards Bailey and found her lips waiting. It felt easy and natural. As easy and natural as something could feel that made Cody's heart threaten to break out of his chest. They drew apart, saying nothing. They leaned against each other, both reveling in that simple physical contact.

"You know what?" Cody said at last.

"What?"

"I can't spend every day in a permanent cringe." Bailey nodded at his statement and Cody continued, still speaking softly. He was afraid of what her reaction was going to be when he finished. He had never felt _this_ vulnerable with someone before. He hadn't ever been as open with Zack as he was being right then. "You make me brave, you know?"

"I was just thinking that I don't want you to be brave anymore," Bailey said, turning her body to face him. "I want you to be with me. I want you to be safe and not go looking for trouble, just stay with me, stay close to me." She lowered her gaze from his face. "But I know that you can't do that. You don't ever go looking for trouble, it always finds you. And right now, you're probably in the biggest amount of trouble you've ever been in. That's why I was thinking of-"

"Don't go there," Cody shook his head. "I'm not letting you jeopardize your school work for-"

"For someone I lo-"Bailey quickly cut herself off. "For someone I really care about?" She asked. "Yeah, god forbid I do that." She got to her feet and walked away from Cody towards the window.

Cody lowered his head, his hair moving off of his face. He wasn't stupid; he knew he said the wrong thing there. He always prided himself on being the kind of guy that was really in tune with a girl's feelings, especially being raised by his mother, but now he knew that he wasn't ever going to be able to completely stop himself from saying what he was thinking, no matter how much it was going to hurt someone else.

"Bailey," he lifted his head. "I didn't mean-"

"Sorry to interrupt," Tapeworm knocked on the bedroom door to get his friend's attention. He looked back and forth between the two of them. "Whatever it is that I'm clearing interrupting, but we need to get to Crystal's house." He entered the room a little.

"Why?" Bailey turned from the window and hurried across the room to grab her notebook. "What's up?"

"Did something happen?" Cody asked, getting to his feet as well.

"You're going to have to ask the Jacksons," Tapeworm replied. "They just got back."

* * *

Zack leaned down and scowled at the toast that was being cooked in the toaster. He let out a wistful sigh as he watched the bread slowly darken, the butter melting over it. He used to be able to toast bread in a matter of seconds, now he had to wait two minutes just to be able to eat something that needed to be heated up. If it wasn't the thrill and the adrenaline rush, the thing that Zack missed the most was using his fire power to make some mundane things quicker and easier.

He distantly heard someone pounding on the front door and watched with amusement as Aaron raced from the living room to the front door. He heard the door open and voices before the door closed again. At that point, he didn't care as he was too busy waiting for his food to get finished.

At least mom can't get on me for eating unhealthy anymore, Zack chuckled to himself as the toaster dinged, letting him know his food was ready. He carefully opened the toaster and used the fork that was in his left hand to spear the toast and bring it towards him.

"Hey Zack!"

Zack jumped, the sudden movement causing him to knock his toast to the floor. Trying to catch it before it hit the ground; he instinctively shot out his right hand, causing it to hit the hot metal sheet that the toast had been sitting on. Zack cursed loudly as he turned to the sink and turned on the water, placing his hand under it. He looked over his shoulder at Rhuben, who was laughing quietly at him.

"Thanks, I burn my hand and you laugh at me." Zack said, flipping his hair out of his face. He held out his left arm and waited as Rhuben walked forward and gave him a side-hug in greeting. "If that toast is covered in hair by the time I get it off of the floor, I'm making you eat it."

"Meh," Rhuben shrugged. "I'll just slip it to Patrick, he'd eat it anyway." She laughed lightly and then looked down at Zack's hand. "The irony of you burning your hand is too easy to pass up." She said, looking like she wanted to laugh all over again.

"Trust me; it's not lost on me." Zack said as he turned off the water. "I was just mentally cursing the toaster as well."

"That's an interesting 'welcome back' then," Rhuben laughed before removing her arm from Zack's waist and turning towards the entrance to the kitchen. "Hey Riles, Zack burned his hand, you might want to check it out." She called and then turned back to Zack, who gave her a funny look. "I figured you might want some time alone or something." She explained.

"Speaking of," Zack grabbed a dishtowel and started to dry off his hand. "How's Reihu?"

"I don't know," Rhuben looked concerned for a second but then it went away. "Ever since Christian sent him to go do…whatever he's doing, his e-mails have been really slow." She shrugged. "But that's normal for him; he hardly has his phone on him as it is."

"Bet you wish you had your powers to go see him, don't ya?" Zack teased.

Rhuben snorted. "Yeah, what's a little pain and torture that I feel every time I go through shadows, just so I can see him?"

"Did you say someone burned their hand?" Riley asked as she walked into the kitchen. She looked at Zack's hand, which was red, and raised her eyebrows. "Talk about ironic." She stated.

Zack grimaced as Rhuben laughed and left the kitchen. "Yeah, we've already gone over that." He said and then moved his hand by his side, shyly. He wasn't sure how he wanted to greet her; he wasn't sure how she would react to it.

"Let me look at it." Riley said, moving closer to him, holding out her hand.

Zack extended his own hand, taking a step closer as she took it. "It feels okay now." He said quietly.

"I don't see a burn." Riley said as she turned his hand with hers.

Zack agreed. "But you don't want to touch it, trust me." Even now, even with all that was happening, he registered her touch like a very different sort of electric shock. Her hand was cold. He liked that. "How are you?" He asked.

Riley moved her hair out of her face, not making a move to drop his hand. "Fine," she replied. "Stressed," her eyebrows crinkled a little bit before she smiled a little. "But I'm used to that at this point." She finally lifted her head and looked Zack in the eye. "Better now." She let out a breath through her nose. "So what's been going on here?"

"A lot," Zack replied. "And I'm assuming that something happened with you guys since you're back so soon."

"Mhm," Riley nodded. "But we'd rather say when everyone else is here."

"Yeah, I get that." Zack agreed. He stayed silent for a moment. "I missed you." He finally said truthfully.

Riley chuckled at his serious tone before giving him a teasing smile. "Of course you did," she replied, dropping his hand and moving hers to his cheeks. "Because I'm such a big staple in your life that you would be _miserable_ if I was gone any longer." She moved forward and gave him a quick kiss. "C'mon." She and Zack walked into the living room, where Crystal, Aaron, Christian, Core, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney were sitting. "Hey Crys, you might want to check out Zack's hand." She said as she sat down on the floor in front of the couch. "He burned himself."

"Really?" Crystal's eyebrows rose as a twinkle appeared in her eye. "That's-"

"Ironic, yeah I get it." Zack interrupted, holding up a hand. "I got it the first time."

"I was actually going to say 'hysterical, but that works too." Crystal shrugged and got up from the ottoman that she was sitting on, heading towards the bathroom to get the first aid kit.

Zack rolled his eyes as he stretched out onto the floor. Crystal came back with the first aid kit and started to bandage up his hand as Cody, Tapeworm, and Bailey arrived at the house. As soon as they were all situated, Tapeworm quickly explained everything that had happened n Boston while the Jacksons had been away. As he spoke, Sydney typed down everything that he said, even going as far as to borrow Bailey's notebook and to type down everything that was in there. The Jacksons didn't ask any questions until they were sure that he had finished.

"So now Tape _and_ Crys have their powers back?" Patrick asked, running a hand over his face, suddenly looking tired. Crystal nodded. "I wonder if there's a specific order to them coming back." He murmured to himself, before turning to Bailey. "And now you can use Geneva's _and_ Gattaca's powers?" It was now Bailey's turn to nod. "I wonder how that's possible."

"It might have to do with the age-old idea, that you can't have the darkness without the light and vice-verse." Noah replied helpfully. "I mean, realistically speaking it makes sense. If you have a light on in the room, there's going to be darkness somewhere, because the light can't touch everything. Maybe their powers are significantly improved if they're with each other." He paused for a moment, thinking. "And when Gattaca was using Zhane as his vessel, her powers were decreased."

"But she still must be pretty powerful if her one attack was able to almost burn Zhane's hand off." Riley reminded him. "And that was just using light."

"It's just a theory; I didn't say that was the reason why." Noah reminded his eldest sister. "There are so many things that could be right and wrong with it. And since Cody says that the prophecy hasn't actually come true yet, maybe it has to do with that." He shrugged. "We don't know."

"That's a good thought tough," Christian commended his nephew. "Bringing it up with the prophecy. If I'm not mistaking, Geneva may have been in Bailey…the same way that Cody thought about it earlier, someone can be an elemental without awakening. It might be the same idea. But Zhane could have awakened with Gattaca's powers when he still only wanted to get back at his sister."

"Considering we don't know everything about elementals, not even what you guys know, it seems to me that it's all that you can go off with right now." Core agreed.

Noah looked over at Core but didn't say anything. He sure as hell didn't trust the man, but that didn't mean that he didn't respect him either. He was taught to always respect his elders, but in recent events and what he learned about Core's actual intentions for the past few years, he wasn't sure whether or not he could ever trust him. It was going to take some time.

"What happened with you guys when you went back home?" Tapeworm asked, changing the subject. "It must have been something big if you guys are back here earlier than we anticipated." He looked at Crystal out of the corner of his eye. "Unless, it was something that you had planned." He shrugged. "I wouldn't put it past you."

"Thanks for the compliment," Rhuben smiled a little. "It's big, but this definitely wasn't planned. Crys _did _tell us that Uncle Christian was acting funny, looking for something." Her eyes narrowed a little as she looked at her uncle. "And we figured if you couldn't find it here, what if our Dad had it?"

"_So you're telling me," Julius said slowly as he stared at his five younger siblings. "That you dragged me away from work, just so we could, somehow, break into Dad's computer to find something that we don't even know they're looking for." He crossed his arms over his chest. "Is that about right?"_

"_Pretty much." Riley and Rhuben harmonized as they nodded._

"_Ok, my only question is, whatever we're looking for, how do you know that it's still there?" Julius asked. "It's been almost ten years," he reminded them gently, not wanting to bring up any bad memories. "What makes you think that they've left his computer where it is?"_

"_Well, the way I see it, it's a very good possibility." Sydney said, rocking back and forth on his heels, for the first time in his life, looking less confident than he felt. "I mean, Dad was really respected here," he motioned to the building that they were standing in front of. "Whenever we came to visit as kids, they didn't have a bad thing to say about him."_

"_So we figured if Dad didn't have any of whatever it is that we're looking for on his home computer, then it's on the work computer." Noah continued, shoving his hands into his jeans pockets. "And you know Syd, he can hack into any computer without having to try too hard. We might as well see if there's any hidden files in it."_

"_Two question then," Julius continued, after mulling it over for a second. "One, how are you going to get by security? And two, what if we get on and nothing's there?" He sighed when his brothers and sisters just looked at each other, not sure what to say. "We might as well do it, it's better to look then to not even try, but if we get caught, which at some point I'm sure we will, let me do all the talking."_

"_Geez, its times like these I wish that we still had our powers." Patrick commented as they started to walk towards the building. He stretched his arms behind his back. "We could be in and out in a matter of seconds, it wouldn't even be funny."_

_His siblings didn't reply as they walked into the front of the building. It was as white inside as it was on the outside, people in lab coats were milling around everywhere, walking quickly and talking to each other. Some were laughing, others had their heads buried into folders, and others were talking to each other about their lunch plans as they went by. But none of them turned to look at the Jacksons as they passed by them, walking slowly as they looked around. Julius looked around for a moment before motioning his siblings over to the front desk. The receptionist looked up as they approached and her eyes darted back and forth over their faces, although her fingers still moved over her computer keyboard._

"_May I help you?" The receptionist asked as Julius rested his arms on the desk._

"_Yes, I'm looking for Reed Jackson's office," Julius replied smoothly. "It's been a while since his…passing and we haven't been by to collect his stuff. I was told that everything was still here." He added hopefully. _

_The receptionist's eyes took another revolution around their faces before her eyes widened in recognition. "You're not his kids are you?" She asked, slowly standing up, leaning a bit closer to them. Instinctively, they moved back. "Oh, you are. I remember you, I saw you all for the first time a few months before the accident." She reached out and shook Julius' hand. "Your father was really respected around here, his innovations helped the company."_

"_That's good to know." Julius replied, shaking her head. "So, where was his office? It's been a while since I've been here so-"_

"_Let me just get you some badges." The receptionist sat down once more, and started to type on her computer once again. Before they knew it, six badges had popped out of a printer that was by her computer. "You just need to return these before you leave so we can dispose of them, can't have these things floating around, you know." She added as she handed them over. "What have you all been up to since…"_

"_Well, we've been through a lot." Julius replied as he used a hand that was behind the desk to wave his siblings along._

_They quickly took the hint and hurried towards, what they thought was the direction of the elevators. No one spoke until they turned a corner. "That was easier than I thought." Rhuben commented as she looked down at the all-access pass that was hanging around her neck._

"_A little too easy if you ask me," Riley agreed, "Keep your eyes peeled on anything that you think may help," she added as she stopped, placing her hands on her hips. "Considering we don't even really know where we're going right now." She added as an afterthought. "It can't be hard to find," she pulled her phone out of her pocket. "Text if you find it and we'll meet there."_

"_Got it." Patrick, Noah, and Sydney replied in unison._

"You had a really good idea there," Core sympathized, looking as frustrated as they could have felt. "I didn't even think that Reed could have kept it. It would make sense, Ruriko was there a lot, keeping tabs on what he was studying, I doubt she would want it around you guys. Not until you awakened at least."

"No, he wouldn't," Christian agreed. "I didn't want it around Crys, either, not until I was sure that she was an elemental. Even at that time, I couldn't keep it away for long; I could see her showing parts of her powers early on."

"Really?" Crystal asked, turning to him. When Christian nodded, she turned a confused glance to her lap. Aaron reached over and patted her on the hand, causing her to smile.

"I didn't think that was possible." Zack said, tilting his head to the side. "I thought when you awakened you awakened, if you didn't you didn't. I didn't think that you showed bits of your power before you actually did come into your power." He continued speaking before Christian or Core could say anything else. "Unless it depends on your lineage as well as how strong you potentially are."

"Mark the time and day," Tapeworm remarked. "Zack used a big word."

"It doesn't help us at all though," Riley sighed, tilting her head back so she was looking at the ceiling. "All it does it give us more questions than answer and at this point, I'm fucking tired of questions!"

"Language." Christian reminded her.

"Sorry, Uncle Christian." She quickly apologized.

That same through ran through everyone's heads at that one moment. How many more questions were they going to get? How much longer was it going to be before everything was so clear to them? What would be clear; who they were after? Who their guardians were being controlled by? How come only some of the guardians so far were able to break away from it? What actually deemed you as an elemental? Were the Elemental world and Earth supposed to be interlocked with each other or was it supposed to be that they were separated? No matter how many things they figured out, they never seemed to actually figure anything out. It was beginning to be more than frustrating.

"So," Bailey changed the subject back. "Did you find anything?" Bailey asked eagerly once Rhuben finished explaining her story. "Did you get into the office? What happened?"

"We couldn't get in," Riley replied, shaking her head. "Something happened and there was like, this meltdown, and we had to get out of there." Her hands clenched into fists. "But I know that we're onto something, I just have this feeling." The right side of her face twitched. "We were going to go back, but then we got some more news from Boston, there's more footage than they had before. I think they're trying to get our pictures so they can track us down."

"Do you really think they're doing that?" Aaron asked, finally speaking up after listening to the whole story. "I didn't think that it was something that serious, just that they were looking at the footage as if they were looking at footage of a UFO."

Christian moved his hand over his mouth, leaning forward as he did so. He moved his hand away from his mouth and looked over at Core, who looked back at him. Cody looked over at the two of them as they straightened up and looked away from each other, a heavy feeling settling in his gut. He could tell, things were going to get worse before they even started to get remotely better.

Patrick's stomach grumbled loudly and Christian laughed as he got to his feet, mussing his nephew's hair as he passed by him. "I guess that's my cure to formally disband this meeting and get you guys some food." He disappeared into the kitchen, coming out a second later with a list in his hand, scratching his forehead.

"I told you before that we needed to get more food." Aaron reminded him, seeming to sense Christian's slight frustration.

"Looks like a quick trip to the store." Riley said as she took the list from her uncle, looking it over.

"Good, I'm getting hungry." Patrick smiled.

"Good," Rhuben took the list from Riley and pushed it into Patrick's chest. "Because you're coming."

* * *

"What are we looking for again?" Patrick asked as he hunched over, pushing a shopping cart in front of him. "I kind of forgot already," he chuckled lightly, rubbing the back of his neck as Noah rolled his eyes, Rhuben smiled, and Sydney laughed.

"That's what the list is for," Rhuben reminded him as she waved the piece of paper in front of his face. "First on the list is some tomatoes," she squinted, moving it closer to her face. "It doesn't say which kind, but I'm sure that Crys would like some grape tomatoes, so we should get that too."

"I'll get it." Zack offered. He spun on his heel and moved to the produce aisle as the others continued on. He walked straight up to the tomatoes and lifted one up, looking it over. "What do people particularly look for when they do this?" he asked himself before grabbing a bag and starting to fill it up.

He was so busy getting as many tomatoes as he thought that they would need that he didn't notice that the aisle emptied pretty quickly. If he still had his powers, or if according to Cody's theory they weren't dormant at the time, he would have noticed it very quickly. As it was, his reflexes were moving a bit slower than usual. But they were sharp enough that when he noticed someone coming up behind him with a pole in the mirror above him, he ducked to the side and jumped up onto the railing of the produce stand.

The person swung down the pipe, smacking open a few tomatoes in the process. Zack winced as the juice and seeds flew out and hit him in the face.

"You've gotta be kidding me." Zack muttered.

* * *

**A/N: **I hope you guys liked the chapter! :) BTW, Aaron is going to have a bigger part as the story goes on.

Cheers,

-Riles


	12. A look into the past I

CHAPTER ELEVEN

* * *

"So, rumor's going around that you were assaulted by your teacher."

Nathan looked up to see Kristin and Ruriko standing above him, both holding onto the straps of their backpacks. It was Kristin that had spoken; she drummed her fingers on her backpack strap as she waited for Nathan to respond. His mouth dropped open in shock and now he was trying to think of something to say, effectively making him look like a fish.

"We'll take your silence as that it's true." Ruriko added with a snort.

Nathan motioned for them to sit down in the seats across from him and he pushed his chair as close to the table as possible. His chest was now pushed up against the table so hard that it was starting to hurt, but at this point he didn't care. He looked around to make sure that no one was listening to them. Surprisingly, the library was emptier than he expected. It was close to their winter finals, almost Christmas, so he was using most of his free time studying. He was supposed to be meeting Reed and Christian there later, and didn't expect to be spoken to until then.

"How did you hear about that?" Nathan asked in a whisper.

"It's all over campus," Ruriko replied, dropping her backpack to the ground. She lowered her voice as well. "No one knows what the real story is, some people just say that you three got him mad and that he decided to hit you. Other people are saying that you're making the story up just to get some attention."

Nathan grimaced.

If anything, what they needed was _less_ attention. That way no one else would figure out what he, Reed Jackson, and Christian Manning were up to.

"So what really happened?" Kristin cut to the chase. "Did he really attack you or what? 'Cause either way, if somehow the President hears about this, you're all going to have some sort of a hearing about it." She rested her chin in her hand. "And even if it was a rumor, rumors always start from something, so you're probably going to have lots of fingers point at you."

Nathan sighed when he realized that she was right. But he didn't know what to say to make the two of them go away, so they didn't get too close to what they were doing. He didn't even think they had a clue as to what was going on, they'd only gone out on a date with Christian and Reed once, respectively, and hadn't since then. He made sure none of the guys talked about what they were really studying, that would make them get into more trouble than they would with the school.

They would be in more than legal trouble if anyone found that out.

"I…can't tell you." Nathan replied slowly.

"Well, _that's_ a lame excuse." Ruriko said as she shook her head. "Come on, Nathan, we know that something is up."

"Nothing's up," Nathan replied as he started to gather this things together. "We're just working on our project about psychological-"

"I thought it was about reincarnation." Kristin broke in. "At least," she gave a sweet smile. "That's what Christian _and_ Trethaway told me that you guys were going to be working on." Nathan gave her a look and Kristin's smile widened. "I'm a girl; we hear things all the time. I heard this from Trethaway's teaching assistant."

"Really? 'Cause I thought that all you talked about was who was going out with who and who broke up." Nathan deadpanned. "Because you guys seem to be _really_ good at that."

"That too." Kristin said patiently. She and Ruriko watched as Nathan continued to gather his things, wanting to move as quickly as possible, but his haste causing him to drop his stuff repeatedly. "Oh, I'll just let you off of the hook and cut to the chase here," she rested her arms on the table and looked hard at Nathan. "We know that you guys are studying Elementals." She said.

Nathan froze and looked at Kristin. The young woman looked back at him, slowly nodding. He then shifted his eyes over to her twin, Ruriko, who nodded as well. He wasn't sure if he should call their bluff of believe them, the fact that she just went right out and said it meant that she knew something. That _they_ knew something.

"We know that you're researching them, and we know that you got the info from the government, but they're not going to tell you everything that you're going to need to know." Ruriko continued as Nathan slowly sat down in his seat, looking at the twin girls in shock. "You're dealing with a whole other world out there and you're just scratching the surface."

"So what does this mean?" Nathan asked his voice barely above a whisper.

"You're going to need our help." Kristin and Ruriko replied.

* * *

**A/N: **This was originally supposed to be a longer chapter, but then I got a different idea (this chapter) that needed to go in between the last one and the next one. I hope that you guys don't mind that it's kind of short though.

Cheers,

-Riles


	13. Where are we supposed to go?

CHAPTER TWELVE

* * *

"Do you think it matters what brand of soup we get?" Patrick asked as he held two cans of New England Clam Chowder in his hands, weighing the two of them. "For the most part they taste the same."

"Yeah, but this one," she leaned forward and pointed to the can in his left hand. "Has low sodium, and I don't know about you, but I like having a lot of salt in my food." She smiled as she stood up straight, from where she was leaning on her cart. "Cholesterol and all that, it makes stuff taste better."

"It's so funny how people consider us healthy but we have the worst diet ever," Patrick commented as he put one of the soup cans back and started to toss a few more into the cart.

"That's what happens when you end up camping out more often than you are sleeping in a nice room." Rhuben reminded him.

Patrick smiled and nodded back, and then all of a sudden, he frowned and peered closer into the rows of soup, looking closely.

"Mate, last I checked, the soup is arranged by flavor." Rhuben lightly teased, noticing his stare. All laughter was set aside when Patrick motioned for her to be quiet. She moved over to his side and helped as he started to push soup cans out of the way. Once they moved enough of them, a set of angry looking eyes glared back at them.

"What the-"

"Back up!"

Rhuben grabbed her brother by the arm and jerked him backwards, the two of them crashing into the aisle of food behind them as the aisle of soup cans slowly started to tilt over. They winced as it loudly crashed to the ground. Some cans broke open and others rolled away. A man in a SWAT uniform stood across from them, holding onto a shield, slowly advancing towards them.

"This has to be a setup," Rhuben muttered under her breath as the two lay on the floor. "There weren't many other shoppers here and no one has come to see what the commotion was." She turned her head to the side, listening to Zack's voice along with a lower one. "Sounds like Zack's preoccupied as well."

"Who would have guessed that one day we would actually be fighting against 'the man'?" Patrick joked lightly.

"I don't want any trouble." The man said as he continued to move close to them.

Rhuben snorted as she and her brother got to their feet. "That's what they _always_ say." She turned her head so her mouth was by Patrick's ear. "Even if we don't have our powers anymore, I'm sure that we can take him." She slowly clenched her hands into fists.

Beside her, Patrick did the same.

The two waited until he got close enough to them. "Up and over?" Rhuben suggested.

"Ladies first." Patrick replied.

When the man had moved his shield aside, thinking that they were going to submit to him, Rhuben and Patrick took the opportunity to bum-rush him. Using the cans that were in front of them, they stepped up onto them, and jumped up and over the man. Patrick kicked him in the back of the legs, causing the man to fall to his knees. Rhuben turned on her right foot and sent her left one into the man's side.

He let out a cry and turned his shield around to block each of their next attacks towards him. Rhuben and Patrick continued to fight him, trying to knock his shield away as it thwarted each and every one of their attempts to get to him. Frustrated, Rhuben locked eyes with Patrick and he nodded. Patrick slid onto his knees on the ground and then flipped onto his back. When the man moved the shield, Patrick grabbed it between him feet and pulled the shield out of his grasp and swung his legs up towards his head, letting go with his feet. The shield went flying and Patrick managed to get a kick into the man's chest as Rhuben quickly grabbed his head in both of her hands.

The man immediately went still.

"Don't think I don't know how to snap someone's neck." She hissed into his ear. She knew she wouldn't do it though; she couldn't intentionally hurt someone that hadn't hurt her first. In many ways, he was as innocent as they came, working under orders, trying to capture someone…_something_ they couldn't understand. They didn't even know why at this point, but it was like UFOs and Aliens, it was covered up while people secretly worked on it. She tightened her grip, hoping to intimidate him even more.

"Now," Patrick did a kick-up back to his feet and then leaned over the man, holding onto the front of his shirt with his left hand, the fingers on his right hand twitching. "What do you want?"

"We just want to help you." The man said.

"Ha!" Patrick laughed. "The day that anyone wants to help us is the day I die."

"I wouldn't use those words," Rhuben said, lifting her gaze to look at her brother. "You know, just in case you jinx yourself or something. It's happened before." She then looked back down at the man. "Why is everyone following us?" The man didn't answer; he continued to look at Patrick. Rhuben dug her nails into the man's skin and he let out a cry. "What do you want from us?"

All of a sudden, a searing pain flashed through Rhuben's head. It hurt so bad that she immediately let go of the man and backed up a few steps, holding onto her head. It felt like it was splitting in two. She recognized the feeling, but she never got used to it. The feeling of the darkness coming back was unbearable, the screams that she could hear in her head, the pain and despair that she could feel. It made her wonder how she was ever strong enough to control it, but she was always able to. Now it seemed like it was worse.

Patrick immediately noticed her distress and started to say soothing words of comfort to his older sister, knowing that he couldn't physically do anything to help her. "Hold on, Sis." He said breathlessly. "I know you can fight it, you always do."

Rhuben curled into the fetal position, her hands still on the sides of her head, whimpers coming out through her clenched teeth. Her eyes were squeezed shut, she was breathing heavily. Open your eyes, Rhuben told herself. Be brave. Be brave. See it, face it, fight it. But the darkness was in her skull, pushing and prodding, peeking inside her secrets, laughing at her pathetic resistance. And yet, she opened her eyes. A lifelong habit of defiance gave her the strength.

As she stood up, she could feel her strength returning to her. That familiar feeling of when she used to have her powers. Patrick smiled a little when he noticed his sister getting up. Rhuben's hands glowed purple as she slowly walked over to the man.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Rhuben and Patrick turned to see another man dressed in SWAT gear, but he was holding a gun that was pointed directly at Patrick's heart. The younger boy froze. "I know that you can't move fast enough to race a gun, one step and he'll be dead."

Patrick let go of the first man's shirt and took a step back, holding his hands up.

Rhuben's hands stopped glowing as she held hers up as well.

* * *

Zack jumped backwards, giving himself some space as the man holding the pipe, lifted the object from the tomatoes and shook it so the seeds and juice went flying off. Zack took another step backwards when he noticed the man turn his way. He needed the space to be sure that he had room to move as fast as he needed to, even if he didn't have his powers, he still knew how to fight. Things were different now, except for those at WingzCorp; they had never been attacked in broad daylight like this before.

And this man looked like a normal person that Zack would walk by on the sidewalk. So something else was going on. By the looks it, it wasn't going to be anything good.

"You're faster than I thought, Zack." The man said as he placed his hand on the pole and slid it down its surface, wiping the rest of the juice off.

Zack's hands fell a little from the position that he had them close by his face. The man knew his name? His eyebrows furrowed a little as he instinctively took another step back. Even though they were on their own in the produce section, he couldn't help but feel that he had his back against a wall. Distantly, he could hear the sounds of a struggle and knew that Rhuben and Patrick had been attacked as well. The man must have noticed Zack's confusion and surprise, for he slowly smiled, revealing pearly white teeth. Although one was gold.

"Yeah, we know everything about you." He said, his smile turning malicious. "We know that you lived in the Tipton Hotel that you lived on and worked on the SS Tipton, we know that your parents abandoned you." Zack's fingernails dug into his palms, his hands started to shake. "We know a lot."

"Who's we?" Zack asked, stalling for time.

"You'll figure it out soon." The man replied. He twirled the pole in his hand. "Let's talk first."

"I don't want to talk to you." Zack spat. He flinched, as the man swung the pipe towards him. Thankfully, he flinched _backwards_ or else his face would have been smacked with the metal pole. He was sure that his jaw would have broken or he would have had some teeth knocked out if he moved the other way.

"Hasn't anyone ever told you to respect their elders?"

"I don't respect anyone," Zack replied flippantly. "Never have, probably never will. I don't know, according to my brother, I don't' really listen to anyone other than myself, so." He shrugged.

"Right your brother, Cody." The man nodded. "Name's Diamond, by the way."

"I didn't ask for your name." Zack pointed out.

"No, but you're going to remember it."

Diamond swung to hit him again and Zack reached out and grabbed the handle of a shopping cart that was next to him. It was filled with jugs of milk and tubs of ice-cream so it didn't move as quickly as he wanted it to, but it was still as effective as he needed it to be. Using as much strength as he could muster, Zack swung the shopping cart around and hit Diamond in the side, just as he brought the pipe down. There was a loud metal clang and Zack's arms shook with the recoil of the metal pipe hitting the cart. Diamond took the opportunity to push the cart backward into Zack's stomach, knocking the wind out of him.

Zack was immediately knocked to the floor and pinned down by Diamond's boot on his chest. He wasn't an idiot; he knew when he was defeated. Zack lay there on the ground, struggling to draw in breath. Above him, he watched as Diamond said something into a walkie-talkie. A few moments later, Rhuben and Patrick were standing by Zack's side. Zack was forced to his feet and Diamond wrapped his arm around his neck, turning him to face Rhuben and Patrick. The two were glaring, breathing heavily through their noses. Zack could tell that they had fought long and hard, to get away, but knew when to give up as well. He studied the men that were holding onto the two of them.

They were in full on SWAT gear.

Zack's gaze lowered to the ground as he felt the fight slide out of him. Things really were as bad as they had thought. Worse even. Diamond tightened his grip around Zack's neck and Zack started to take in some breaths through his nose, feeling his throat getting constricted.

"Now, just so these two don't get any ideas," Diamond shifted and moved his free arm around, Zack couldn't see what he was doing, but he broke out in a cold sweat, knowing that it wasn't good. "Here's what's going to happen to you," he was now speaking to Rhuben and Patrick. "If you try to get away." Out of the corner of his eye, Zack spotted something black in Diamond's hand. As he brought it down, his heart started to thud against his chest so hard it made him feel sick, he knew what was coming.

Never in a million years did he think it would happen, but he knew what was coming.

Diamond pressed the muzzle of the gun to Zack's knee.

"No!" Rhuben yelled.

The explosion was shocking. The pain, at first, didn't register. But Zack collapsed. He fell on his side like a felled tree. The leg, blown half off, buckled and twisted beneath him.

And then came the pain.

Zack let out the loudest scream. He screamed so hard that his throat turned raw and burned. His eyes were squeezed tightly, tears rolling down his face. He reached his hands down to grab onto his leg, but the twinge of pain sent shockwaves to his brain that caused him to pass out almost immediately.

…

..

.

"Zack?"

"Zack, wake up!"

"C'mon, you're going to be ok."

"Zack."

Zack's eyes fluttered open.

"Oh good," Cody gave him a tight hug. "You're awake." He leaned back and squeezed Zack on the shoulder, tears in his eyes. He willed them to go away, his brother was safe, he was ok, and he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. Not if he had anything to say about it. Zack's eyes drifted over to Cody and he blinked once, giving his younger brother a soft smile before he closed them once more.

"Are you ok?" Bailey asked from Cody's side, her hands were clasped in front of her and her face was white.

As Zack opened his eyes once more, the first thing he noticed was that all of his friends' faces were hovering over his, all looking down at him in concern. The second thing he noticed was that he was in a bed, constricted by the sheets that were tightly tucked around him. The third thing that he noticed was that he didn't feel any pain. He slowly reached down to touch his knee, thinking that he would find his leg to be completely gone, but was relieved and shocked to feel that it was still there, completely intact. There was no blood and there were no bones sticking out through his skin.

Zack sat up quickly and threw back the covers on the bed, running his hands up and down his knee, pushing on it, letting out a somewhat crazy laugh of relief.

"We didn't think that you were going to be able to keep your leg." Sydney commented from where he sat at the end of the bed, watching him carefully. "We didn't think that we would be able to heal it without mine or Cody's powers." He added.

"Then what happened?" Zack asked. His voice was hoarse from how loud he screamed. He swallowed thickly and felt a bit of pain in the back of his throat.

"You didn't think that all of the research I had been doing on you guys was for my own entertainment did you?" Christian placed a hand on Zack's shoulder, squeezing it gently. "Core and I, whenever we gave you guys shots or whatever, that would be too risky to get at the doctor's, we would also take some of your blood as well."

"Yeah," Zack nodded.

"When we got your guys' blood, we would take some of the elemental, well, DNA isn't the right word but it's the best one, and used it to create healing properties." Christian pulled a small vial out of his pocket. It was empty, obviously having been used on Zack's knee. "For gashes and stuff, you would only need to use a few drops, but that's only when you're an elemental. Since you're human now and you'd been shot…we had to use the whole thing."

"How did we…" Zack turned to Rhuben and Patrick, who were sitting on the floor. "What happened? How did we get out?"

"I'll explain," Noah said as he moved to Zack's side. "You guys went to the store to get some food, and then you were attacked by some government officials. Two worked for the SWAT Team and another ne worked for the CIA."

"That would explain why he had the gun." Zack commented, shaking his head.

"What Christian didn't realize was that because he sent you to a smaller store, instead of the bigger grocery chain where you could easily be recognized, he would be sending you into a trap." Noah moved his hair from his face as he looked directly into Zack's eyes, hoping that he would understand the severity of their situation. "It was all a set-up. The government knew that we would be trying to stay out of the spotlight for a while. So they took up a smaller grocery store that had been closed down for months and then opened it to make it seem like it was still thriving, to lure us in. Well, it worked. As soon as you guys went in there, they tried to capture you, possibly using you guys to lure them back here to get to the rest of us."

"Thank God that shield that was put up is still working," Crystal said, nervously cracking her knuckles as she peered out the window that she was standing in front of. She carefully put the curtain back in place before turning back around. "Unfortunately, without one of us being able to produce the shield," she motioned to Sydney, who looked annoyed. "We don't know how much longer it's going to be up."

"Then how did we get out?" Zack asked, bringing a hand up to rub his face. His skin was damp with sweat as well as the sheets around him that were starting to stick to his body.

"Tape sensed that you guys were in danger," Riley said as Tapeworm nodded. "He decided to go, instead of Crys, because the government, potentially, has her picture. You remember the helicopter that was around when you guys were on the roof of the Tipton?" Zack nodded. "We think it may have been a news copter, so we couldn't send her out." She smiled a little. "They got outnumbered pretty quickly when Ursa came through the door. They got you back here as fast as they could."

"Then Uncle Christian healed you." Patrick added.

Zack nodded quietly, everything coming back to him. The fear that he felt when Diamond attacked him. He felt so…vulnerable. He hadn't felt that way in so long he didn't know what it really felt like anymore. He hated the feeling and knew that he didn't want to ever experience it again. When they first lost their powers, and the few months afterwards, it didn't even faze him. But getting hurt that badly really shocked his brain.

"We have to get out of Boston." Zack decided, pushing back the sheets on the bed. He swung his legs over to the side and moved to get up, but Cody held onto his arm, keeping him back.

"Zack, you have to get some rest." Cody said firmly, making sure that he was sitting still.

"He's right," Bailey agreed. "If you don't at least allow your body a day's rest, then you won't be back up to the physical shape that you were before. You might cause even more damage to your body."

Zack rolled his eyes. "I've accumulated enough damage to my body to last a lifetime; one more injury isn't going to kill me."

Cody's eyes hardened and he continued to keep his hand on Zack's arm. Zack glared back at him, hoping that it would get Cody to move. But Cody stood his ground. The others fell silent as the two continued to stare at each other, each one trying to assert their dominance over their twin. Zack's shoulders finally slumped and he scowled as he looked away. Cody took his hand off of his brother's arm and took a step back, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I still say that we should get out of here when we can." Zack said under his breath.

"I can't do that," Tapeworm said suddenly. "What am I supposed to tell my parents?" He frowned. "They're all that I have left, I can't be away from them and not tell them what's going on for that long. They know that we're not at the SS Tipton so it has to be something else. What other lie do you think I can tell that they'll believe?"

"Better question," Rhuben crossed her arms over her chest. "Where are we supposed to go?"

"Well, we may not have to leave Boston completely." Core spoke up. "We could stay somewhere that's always moving, but is in the vicinity. I designed it for that reason."

* * *

**A/N: **Ah, yes, the violence starts. Now, the fact that DeathLiger hasn't come back _yet _doesn't mean that Gattaca or the Darkness is controlling him. I just thought that I should put that out there before anyone jumps to that conclusion. It's important that you know that. Also, there's a reason that Rhuben hasn't mentioned getting her powers back yet.

I hope you guys liked this chapter.

The next one will be back with the people in WingzCorp.

Cheers,

-Riles


	14. You're almost invincible

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

* * *

"Has anyone found anything yet?" Cindy asked glumly, pushing her hair out of her face with both of her hands. She then used her hands to push herself backwards, away from the computer that she was looking at and rubbed her eyes. "How is any of this going to help us, anyway?" She rolled her eyes. "I'm sorry, how is this going to help _them_?"

"If we knew that, then we would probably be looking harder than we already are." Caos pointed out. He turned his eyes to Reihu as he sat close to a computer screen, looking frustrated. "You might want to back up or your eyes are going to be completely ruined."

"I'm a lion; my eyesight can never be ruined." Reihu replied with a slow smile. He pushed himself backwards all the same. "But it probably _is_ a good idea that we take a break." He added and then got up from his seat, rubbing his eyes. "Is everyone else around?"

"Somewhere watching TV or in their rooms." Cindy concurred. "And last I saw, Kuroko and Kagenui were in the gym."

Reihu nodded quietly.

He raised his arms over his head, stretching from his head all the way down to his feet in one fluid motion. His jaws opened wide and he let out a slightly animalistic growl as his tongue lolled out of his mouth. When he finished stretching his twisted his body from the sides and scratched his back.

"Take a break guys, we'll come back to it later." He said with a wave of his hand.

"Since when are _you _in charge?" Cindy asked in annoyance as she and Caos got up from the computers that they were sitting behind. She shook out her hair before training her eyes on him, bags evident under them. "If case you're forgetting you're not even the leader of the DarkLions, so you shouldn't be telling me _or_ Caos what to do."

"Yeah, well, when Core gives you a job you usually do it." Reihu said with a shrug as the three started to leave the computer room.

"Only thing is, we don't take orders from Core anymore, he doesn't care enough about what we do that we should take orders from him." Caos said patiently. "But, at the same time, I'm interested to see what the Element Stone does to the others, so it may be a good thing that we are doing this." He said the last part, turning to Cindy. "But we won't know for sure unless we see it for ourselves."

"And _that's_ why we need to get it first."

Reihu, Caos, and Cindy turned around to see Core striding into the room with a determined look on his face. Zack, Cody, and the others followed after him, looking confused, but there was no mistaking the determination coming from them as well.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Caos asked as they group approached the three of them.

"Getting work done." Core replied simply. "If you will, you can spread this to everyone else later." He added as he grabbed a computer chair and wheeled himself over to a computer.

Cindy snorted. "And why should we listen to you? You used us and abandoned us, remember?" The hurt was evident in her voice. It wasn't that she even particularly liked Core when she was part of WingzCorp, before it disbanded. But he was the only authority figure that she knew and could look up to, so she did everything he asked. But when the truth came out that he was just using them for whatever he needed, she and the rest of WingzCorp wondered what they were going to do with their lives. They had been taking from their homes and experimented on, and then dropped like a hot potato.

Who would trust someone like that?

Reihu walked over to Rhuben and gave her a hug. She held her arms to her side as he rubbed his cheek on her head, a purring sound coming from deep in his chest. "How many times do I have to tell you to stop doing that?" Rhuben asked as she blushed lightly, giving him a quick hug before backing away.

"Sorry, can't help it," Reihu shrugged and pointed over to Core. "Blame him." He then turned to the rest of the group. "How…how are you guys?" He asked.

He wasn't that good of friends with them, but after the last battle when he had helped them significantly, he knew that they accepted him. Zack and Cody were the first ones to do so, though Reihu would think that for Zack it was out of guilt, knowing that Koto was Reihu's best friend (not that any of them said it out loud) and he had given up his life to make sure that Zack survived the fight that he was in against Ashley. Reihu refused to think or talk about it; it just made things too hard. So after getting his assignment from Core to go and look for clues as to where the Element Stone was, he immediately went to it, hardly sleeping just to get things done.

"We're doing as well as could be expected, Reihu," Bailey replied with a nod and a small smile. "Thanks for asking."

"And no one answered my question," Caos pointed out. "What are you all doing here?"

"I'm sure you've heard at this point that the government is, like, taking over the city." Sydney spoke up, wringing his hands together. "Well, that and the fact that we're starting to get out powers back very slowly, it's getting to the point that we can't really stay in Boston anymore."

Beside him, Reihu felt Rhuben stiffen. He looked over at her and she kept her face blank, although her hands were clenched into fists. She then slowly reached out and grabbed onto Reihu's hand, tilting her head to look at him. He recognized that look; there was something that she needed to tell him. And from the fact that she hadn't spoken up, it had to be something really important.

Reihu kept his mouth shut as he turned back and nodded at Sydney.

"It's at the pint that some agents from the government had tracked Zack, Rhuben, and Patrick down at a grocery store and attacked them." Christian added. "And some footage has been on the news about us, so if they know about us, they're going to know about you, too." He said to them, giving fair warning. "You probably won't be able to go out as much as you did before."

Caos snorted. "You think we actually _leave_ this place?" He gave a wry smile. "But we just loved it so much."

"Caos knock it off," Riley said patiently, her arms over her chest. "We know that this is the last place that you guys would want to be, and we know that Core is the last person that you would want to help. But if you help him, you're not only helping us, you're helping yourselves as well. If we can figure everything out with this prophecy and this thing that you guys are dealing with, and figuring out what exactly is taking over our guardians from the Element world, then things can relatively go back to normal for us. And you can live like normal people."

That shut Caos up; he merely looked away from her.

Silence fell over the room, though Core's fingers flying over the keys of the computer that he was sitting at cut through the silence. There were so many questions, from both sides, that needed to be asked; but what they wanted to know the most is what was Core looking for and how was it going to help them. Crystal looked over at her father, who stood behind Core, his face illuminated in the glow of the computer screen. She had never seen him look so tired and so distraught before. It was really kind of scary, but it put everything into perspective.

It was all on the line now.

"This," Core dramatically turned his screen around to show a gem that seemed to shine in all colors of the rainbow. "Is an Element Stone."

"An Element Stone?" Zack repeated. "Like, a fancy gem that you can use to pay with?" He shrugged. "Is it the kind of currency that they use in the Element world?" He asked.

"That's a good guess," Core managed a tiny smile. "But no, it holds a lot of power for an Elemental if they get a hand on it. And there are many of them, there's one for Fire, Water, Thunder, etc. etc." He cleared his throat. "This is the one that we're looking for," he nodded his head over to Reihu. "And it's what he's been doing this whole time.

Reihu nodded as Sydney turned and looked at him curiously.

"You said that it has a lot of power," Noah said with a frown. "If there's more than one, does it go to a specific elemental? And does it significantly increase their power?"

"If you have an Element Stone, you're almost invincible." Christian replied.

"So what are we waiting for?" Zack cried, leaping to his feet, his blue-green eyes shining with excitement. "Let's go find that sucker and win."

"Against whom?" Cody asked his brother patiently. "We don't know who the prophecy is talking about, who is keeping our guardians from coming back to us, who is taking them over when they _do_ come back to us." He shook his head, frustrated. "You got shot in your knee just yesterday; I don't think we should be rushing into anything right now." He added.

Zack scowled and looked away, crossing his arms over his chest as he let out a breath through his nose. He set his jaw, clearly not sued to not having the final say in a situation.

"That's the thing," Core laced his fingers together. "No one knows where they are," the side of his jaw twitched before he continued. "And if they fall into the wrong hands, it can be trouble."

"The worst part is-"

"How can it get worse?" Patrick asked, interrupting his uncle with a dry laugh. "I think we're already on the worse side of our situation."

"_If,_" Core held up a finger, making sure that he had everyone's attention. "Someone who had good intentions of the Element Stone finds it and acquires it," he paused once more. "They can easily go drunk with power and create chaos and destruction without realizing the limit to their power."

"So we're trying to find it, but we have to be careful of who gets it to use it?" Crystal asked. She rolled her eyes. "You know, because nothing can be easy for us."

"I was about to say." Rhuben agreed. Her eyes narrowed for a moment. "And you haven't found anything yet?" She asked. Core, Christian, Reihu, Caos, and Cindy all shook their heads. "So that's what we were looking for when we were at home, too." She rubbed her chin. "I think we should give Julius a call, he might be able to get back into Dad's office and find something that we couldn't find before."

"But you're going to have to make sure that he knows to send anything he finds directly to us." Core replied, motioning between himself and Christian, who nodded as well. Core looked at his watch. "Anyway, I'm sure that you're all tired of the journey to get through, so you may want to get some sleep."

"You want us to sleep at a time like _this?!" _Zack demanded.

"Trust us," Christian replied firmly. "It's better that you get used to sleep now, you may not get a lot of it later."

* * *

"Kitchen, kitchen, where is that kitchen?" Bailey muttered to herself as she wandered the halls of WingzCorp. She let out a sigh of disappointment when she turned a corner and found herself wandering down another set of hallways. It seemed that no matter which way she turned, she wasn't any closer to finding what she was looking for. _How can anyone actually live here?_

"You looking for the kitchen too?" Bailey turned around and smiled as Tapeworm walked up to her. She nodded and he laughed. "Yeah, I was looking for that and the weight room, too." He gave a sheepish smile. "I haven't been working as much as I should and since everything is starting to fall to shit around here…"

"I hear ya." Bailey agreed, flushing slightly as the two started to walk together.

She didn't know why, but she seemed to blush anytime someone cursed, a physical and obvious way of her body showing her discomfort about it. She never got the point of people cursing, but in times like this, his statement did make sense. Everything was going to shit; it was like they couldn't catch a break.

"It's really ironic that this is the second time that we came here when we needed help." Tapeworm continued. "Especially because of everything that had happened to us in the past couple of years." He cracked his knuckles. "Now there's this business with the Element Stones and the fact that you could let the power corrupt you, it's like-"

"Are you sure?"

Bailey stopped walking and held out her arm, causing Tapeworm to crash into it, back peddling a few spaces. He opened his mouth to ask her what was wrong, but Bailey moved her finger to her lips and crouched over slightly, moving towards the room where the door was cracked open.

"This is Core's office," Tapeworm whispered to her. "We shouldn't be-"

He stopped when he heard Core speak up. "Yes, Christian, I'm sure. The Element Stone…the government has it."

"Fuck." Christian cursed and then a loud sound accompanied it, causing Bailey and Tapeworm to jump. "How did they get it?"

"We can't worry about that now; we have to worry about getting it back before they figure out the power that it holds. I don't think they have any idea of that so far, but that may not be the case for that much longer." There was a lengthy pause. Bailey held her breath, hoping that the two grown men didn't hear them outside.

"Element Stone?" Tapeworm repeated from beside her. Bailey looked at him and shrugged. He leaned even closer to the door, listening hard.

"At least it's only one of them," Christian said, probably trying to reassure Core. But Bailey and Tapeworm could hear the anxiety in his voice. Then there was the sound of footsteps, he had to have been pacing back and forth as Core sat in the chair behind his desk. "If they got all of them, then that would be catastrophic. Hell, no one knows where the other ones are even in existence at this point."

"I know we _need_ that one Element Stone." Core agreed.

There was another lengthy pause. Christian's footsteps had stopped and then there was the sound of a sharp intake of breath.

"We can't send any of them in there," Christian suddenly said. "That's complete suicide!"

"I know," Core said patiently. "That's why _I_'_m _going."

Bailey heard Tapeworm sigh from beside her. She turned to look at him, her lips pressed firmly together. Tapeworm studied her face and then slowly shook his head. "We're going to follow him, aren't we?" He asked.

"Yep."

* * *

**A/N: **In my head this chapter was longer, but such is I finally got the back-story things that I wanted done, and now the story goes back to focus on Bailey. And because Tapeworm has a big part to this story as well (besides Zack and Cody of course) you're going to see a lot more of him. _Hopefully _I can maintain good face-time for everyone as there's a lot of people to include as the story goes on.

I hope you guys liked this chapter.

Cheers,

-Riles


	15. Am I really doing the right thing?

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

* * *

Bailey darted back and forth across her room, stuffing her backpack with as much clothes and essential items that she could. Her backpack was already bursting at the seams with everything that she had put in there. She was so already overzealous with her packing that she had no room for the notebook that she carried around everywhere; the one that she wrote her dreams and encounters with elementals and elements in. All of her conversations with Geneva were in there, and so were the things that she and the others had talked about when they were trying to figure out what was going on the first time.

Bailey sighed as she slapped the notebook against her hand, trying to figure out how to fit it in the bag. But that wasn't her main concern.

"_Don't worry Bailey, if you think you're doing the right thing, then you're doing the right thing." _Geneva's voice filled her head. Bailey smiled a little at the sound of her friend's voice. When Geneva first used Bailey as a medium for her powers (while she was still back in the element world) Bailey was freaked out. But now Geneva was something that she felt really close to. _"Follow your instincts."_

"_But sometimes your instincts can cause you to be blind to some things,"_ Gattaca's, Geneva's brother, then filled the room as well. _"Just as a fair warning."_

_Talk about the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other, _Bailey let out a sigh before turning and sinking onto the bed that was in her room. It was as hard as a rock, but she didn't have room to complain. Core didn't make the building to be comfortable, he made it to work. Now here she was, possibly going to follow him as he tried to sneak into a government building to try and get something that no one has ever seen before. _Am I really doing the right thing?_

That was her main though that made her hesitate, was she doing the right thing? She hadn't told any of the others her plan; only Tapeworm knew and that's because he knew that he was going to be dragged into it after what the two had heard from Core. It was risky, that was a definite. She didn't even know what she was going to do if she got caught. Would the others even know where she was headed?

_It's probably better that they __don't__ know, just in case they get caught as well. _Bailey reassured herself, trying to slow down her racing heart. _Not when they're already being stalked by these people. They won't expect me._

That's what she was hoping. That she, little Bailey Pickett, would be so inconspicuous that she would be able to talk her way out of what was going on. (She was hoping that her vast knowledge would help her out as well). If she got caught, she could probably give the others time to get away, and then she would be taken in for questioning.

If not worse…

Bailey shook her head. No, she was going to do this. For once, she was going to be the one that was going to help her friends. Even if she had to sacrifice herself to do it.

* * *

"What are you doing?" Reihu asked as he entered the large (and only) examination room that was in WingzCorp. Rhuben didn't turn at the sound of Reihu's voice; she continued to walk around the room, looking up and down. As if she was looking for something.

His voice echoed across the room. He shivered, a bit chilled. It wasn't cold in the room; on the contrary, it was actually quite warm. But the metal décor as well as the silent screams of pain that he could hear coming from that room always caused him to shiver. He hadn't stepped foot in that room in a long time and he didn't expect that he would ever do it.

Not since he had left it the first time.

"Last I checked that wasn't your business." Rhuben said easily.

"Last I checked, you _are_ my business." Reihu replied. He followed her around the room, watching as she reached out and lightly placed her hand on a tube, running her fingertips over it. She pulled her hand away and rubbed her thumb against her fingers, a look of curiosity on her face. "You don't impress me."

"That's a shame, because I live my entire life in hopes of impressing you."

Reihu laughed lightly at her quick retort before taking a good look around the room. It looked the same as it always had; tubes set up for the animals that served for guardians and for those that Core was going to work on. Reihu briefly remembered when he was there, he didn't remember anything before he was worked on, but he remembered everything after it. He couldn't imagine why she would want to go back there.

"Do you think you're going to find anything?" Reihu asked after a minute.

"Hm, you're smarter than you look," Rhuben commented before turning around, placing her hands on her hips. She was obviously frustrated. Probably at the lack of finding anything. "It's possible," she chewed on her lip. "It was just an idea; if Core was able to get to DeathLiger and DalFang when we awakened, I was wondering how that was possible and if that's what's going on now."

Reihu snorted. "Do you really think that we can believe what he's saying?"

"Do you?" Rhuben returned, crossing the room to him.

Reihu shrugged. "At this point, with everything that he's done, every lie that he's told…." He looked away for a moment, his brown hair falling in his face. "I don't know." He then smiled when Rhuben stopped, standing in front of him. "Remember one of the last things I said to you was when we were in battle?"

Rhuben thought for a moment. "Kiss of death?" she guessed.

"Exactly." Reihu agreed before leaning down to kiss her.

Rhuben turned her head to the side, effectively causing him to kiss her cheek. "Nice try," she said with a half-smile before turning serious again. She changed the subject. "There's a lot of stuff that could answer a lot of our questions here." She remarked. "What's going on with Zack and Cody and the prophecy as well as, potentially, why I haven't gotten DeathLiger back when Crystal and Tapeworm got their guardians pretty quickly." She turned on her heel and started to pace the room once more. "Most importantly," she crossed her arms over her chest. "What the Element Stone has to do with anything and…" she let out a breath, her hands tightening into fists. "Whether or not we fully _can_ trust Core."

Reihu blinked at her for a moment. "You need to relax." He said suddenly. At the incredulous look on her face, he continued. "I don't think I've ever seen you without your jaw being set every since I met you, I'm surprised that you don't have chronic jaw ache." He started to pick at his long nails. "I should take you out on a date."

Now it was Rhuben's turn to snort. "Sorry, but I'm pretty sure that 'going on a date' and 'saving the world' aren't exactly synonymous."

"Tell that to Cody." Reihu retorted. "Seriously, we should go out. You really do need some time to relax"

"I'll relax when I'm absolutely sure that nothing is going to happen to anyone. That we can figure out what's going on and we can stop it before any more innocent people get hurt or before anyone else's lives are completely shaken up." Rhuben held up a finger. "It's happened too much for my liking, especially with what happened to Zack and Cody. If something happened to their parents because of this whole thing, I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

"How so?"

Rhuben shrugged. "It's my fault Cody is an elemental, I awakened him." She explained. She then grimaced. "But, it's not like we can change anything about that now."

"Are you sure you're ok?" Reihu asked her gently.

"Let's be honest here, when am I ever ok?"

* * *

**A/N: **I hope that you guys liked the chapter, it was more a filler than anything, but I think that it really gave a good look into what Bailey is feeling. Like I said in the last one; besides Zack and Cody, Bailey and Tapeworm have a big part in this story, so you're going to be seeing a lot of them. But I'm also gonna try and equally balance face time with everyone else.

I put in some ReihuxRhuben since I haven't shown it much until now as I seemed to have focused more on CrystalxCodyxBailey and ZackxRiley. So I hope you guys liked the silliness of their banter as well as the seriousness of their conversation because I think that while Reihu is older, he still is kind of a silly kid. Or, at least, more care-free. You'll see more of them as the story goes on.

Also after this, the chapters get longer (about 5,000 words) as the plot to the whole story officially starts now. Of course the idea of whether or not Core could be trusted would be one of the main things that they had to deal with.

Cheers,

-Riles


	16. If you leave I will find you

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

* * *

"Tapeworm…..Tape, wake up."

Tapeworm rolled onto his back and opened his eyes. It took a while for his eyes to focus before he realized that Max was standing at the side of his bed, her arm out, ready to shake him. He stared at her for a few seconds, not sure what to do. He couldn't breathe. He wasn't even sure if he was seeing what he was really seeing.

Max chuckled. "You're not going crazy, Tape," she said, as if reading his thoughts. "It's really me."

"Max…?" he breathed. He slowly sat up and then brought his hands up to his hair, grabbing onto the ends of it. _Get your act together, man. You know that she's not really here. You're just dreaming._

"You _are_ dreaming," Max said. Tapeworm was pretty sure that she could definitely read him mind at this point. "But I'm really here." To prove her point, she reached out and grabbed onto Tapeworm's hand. He jumped, startled, when he felt how warm it was.

As soon as his mind registered that her hand was in his, tears sprang to his eyes. He wasn't there when Max died, but he was there when they went to go and bury her body. He didn't cry, not in front of everyone anyway. Bailey, Everyone else cried, either loudly or quietly to themselves, but he didn't cry. Not until everything was over and he got home. He ignored the constant questions from his mother about his time on the ship and who Bailey was as she was staying at his house (guilt crept through his body at the thought that he had lied to his parents when he could have potentially been dead) and then went up to his room. He sat on his bed for twenty minutes in silence before he started to scream and cry. He understood at that moment why, at first, Zack and Riley didn't ever say that they were actually together. The idea of having to lose the person that you cared the most for (besides your family) it was just unbearable. Tapeworm cried for two hours straight, and then he fell into a deep sleep.

After that he acted like nothing was wrong on the outside, but it was tearing him apart, day by day on the inside. He knew that the others were giving him his space to grieve, but it was staring to get on his nerves a bit. Some of them walked on eggshells around him, others just didn't even bring it up; which was helpful. He and Cody talked a lot, him about how he was really feeling with his parents having left him and Zack, and then Tapeworm how he was really feeling about everything. It was good to be able to confide in him, like they used to when they were kids, like when they went to Math Camp. But there are still a few things that Tapeworm didn't tell him.

Max gave Tapeworm a sympathetic smile as she moved and sat next to him on his bed. "Don't freak out, Dude." She reached out and rubbed his back, the feeling sending chills up and down his spine. "It's me. Relax."

"How are you here?" Tapeworm whispered, lifting his head. His eyes were wide. "I'm not dead, am I?"

Max laughed quietly. "No, you're not dead." She reassured him.

"But…how can you be-"

"I already told you, you're dreaming." Max said patiently. Her smile faded and a serious look crossed her face. "But I don't have much time; I have so much that I need to show you." She got off of the bed and held out her hand.

Tapeworm ran a hand over his face. "Do I have time to get dressed?"

"You're still half-asleep aren't you?" Max laughed, placing her hands on her hips as Tapeworm got to his feet. He looked down at her and smiled a little when he saw that she was still wearing her hair in braids and had her hat on. As usual.

"Well, the fact that my girlfriend, whom I thought was dead, is standing right in front of me, telling me that I have to go somewhere with her…I'm a bit confused." Tapeworm said honestly.

Max held her hand out once more. "Come with me and everything will be clear. Well," she paused. "As clear as I can show you." She replied.

Tapeworm hesitated before taking her hand.

All at once, he felt exhausted. His lids fell, he tried, in vain, to keep them open, but he couldn't help it. He had to close his eyes. When he opened them again, Max was no longer by his side, he wasn't in his room in WingzCorp anymore.

He was in a hallway. A dark hallway with very little light, but just enough to see his reflection in the mirror that was across from him. He looked different than he thought, he had gotten too thing. So many years running around, trying to protect him and his friends had done that to him. With everything that was going on now, he was sure that his nutrition was going to take a downhill slide once more. He had some bags under his eyes, but they weren't that bad. Turning around, he noticed that there was nothing behind him, only darkness.

There was no light, no mirrors, nothing at all, only darkness.

Facing the direction he started out in, he walked down the hallway.

His eyes moved to the mirrored walls every few seconds. He couldn't help it; he had to look at them. Every now and then he would see glimpses of his past. When he was a kid, back when he was normal; when he didn't worry about his life. Back when he was constantly being made fun of. He was always the odd one out, he never knew why. It wasn't until he met Max that he felt like he finally had a friend, and then came Zack and Cody and the others…. All of a sudden all Tapeworm could see was his reflection. Sighing, Tapeworm started walking once more. At the end of the hallway was a door that he hadn't noticed before. His footsteps echoed along the hallway, his ragged breath filling his ears. Tapeworm finally reached the door and grabbed onto the handle. He paused for a moment before turning the doorknob and pushing the door open. On the other side of the door was another room. There was nothing in the room but a mirror. By the mirror was a figure in a dressed all in black, wearing a black cloak as well.

Tapeworm walked over and looked into the mirror. He looked at his reflection. No…not his reflection. He looked at himself, distant from everyone, sullen. Hiding from the world. He then turned towards the figure that was in the room. The figure leaned towards Tapeworm and his mouth opened to reveal sharp, pointed teeth. He took a breath and then whispered, "_If you leave I will find you. If you die I will follow you. You're not going to get rid of me._"

Shocked, Tapeworm took a step back.

All of a sudden, he felt something jerk his hand and his eyes flew open and he saw Max standing in front of him, looking concerned. Her eyes were searching his, looking back and forth from his left one to his right.

"Tape, are you ok?" She asked.

"Yeah, I-I'm fine." Tapeworm replied, shaking his head. He looked at Max curiously. "Is… is that what you wanted to show me?"

Max shook her head this time. "I haven't even moved yet," she said, gently squeezing his hand. "You just closed your eyes and then…started to mutter something, and then you snapped back, gasping for air like you were just drowning or something."

Tapeworm moved his free hand to his throat. _Drowning? _Yes, he supposed that's what it felt like. That he was being choked off by whatever it was that was talking to him. Maybe he had been drowning and didn't realize it. He dropped his hand to his side and turned back to Max, nodding, letting her know that he was ok.

"Alright, let's go." Max took Tapeworm's other hand in hers and closed her eyes.

A bright light filled the room. A blinding light. Tapeworm squeezed his eyes shut, but the light penetrated his eyelids. He saw nothing but luminosity. The sound of drums pounded in his ear, as if a war was about to begin, as if the drums were warning someone. He opened his eyes again and the light turned to a pale blue light. He could see, but there was nothing there but blue light. He wasn't standing. He was floating. At that point in his life, he shouldn't have been surprised, but it was still a bit scary to him. Especially since he didn't know what was around him. He tried to walk, but quickly found that you could not walk on air, as his feet flew up and he was floating upside down. As he was overturned, it made the blood flow to his head, making him lightheaded. Slowly the sapphire light turned into blackness and Tapeworm's body became numb. A soft angelic tune hummed in his ears, comforting him. He felt safe; he was filled with serenity as he was serenaded by the softness of the melody. He heard the drums begin to pick up again, trying to overcome the peaceful tune. The exquisite harmony only sung louder, spreading tranquility that prevailed over the dreadful thrashes of the drums. Even though you could scarcely hear the drums, they still existed for they would never stop, but only be distance until time for them to conquer once again.

"Tape, you can open your eyes now," Max said beside him, laughing a little at his expense.

Tapeworm slowly opened his eyes and he gasped when he saw what was below him. A wonderful landscape that had lush, green, rolling hills to the left, mountains in front of him, a…volcano to the right. There was an area that was filled with snow, and there was ocean water as far as he could see.

"Wow," he whispered.

"I know," Max replied with a warm smile. "Do you know where we are?"

"No," Tapeworm shook his head, his eyes darting back and forth, unable to hold still. He had to take in everything, he knew, somehow, that he wasn't going to be there long. He had to be sure that he saw everything that he needed to see, to be able to remember it all. "Where are we?"

"My home."

Tapeworm turned his head and saw Ursa at his side, in his human form. Tapeworm wasn't sure what age he was supposed to be, he knew that his guardian had been alive for a long time, but he looked young. He couldn't mask the look of happiness that was on his face, the same kind of look that anyone got when they were about to get home from being away for so long. His green eyes, which resembled emeralds, were sparkling.

"Come on," Max took Tapeworm's hand and pointed herself towards the ground. Tapeworm smiled a little as they propelled towards the ground easily. Max's element had always been air (or wind depending on who you asked) and she said that having it felt like she was always free. Now he understood what she meant. The feeling of the wind rushing by him easily spiked his adrenaline.

When the three touched the ground, Ursa quickly started to walk back and forth, sniffing loudly. "Yep, its home. It smells like it."

"So, we're in the Element World?" Tapeworm asked, turning to Max.

"Yes and No." Max replied calmly. She had her arms crossed over her chest. "We're in the Elemental World, but not physically. We're here in your dream."

Tapeworm rolled his eyes. _Does everything always have to do with our dreams? Why can't things just be straight forward?_

Max smiled and walked over to Tapeworm's side, wrapping an arm around his waist. "It's really beautiful, right?" She asked. Tapeworm nodded. "I spend most of my time here if I'm not…" she let her voice trail off before she stared to walk off into the woods. Tapeworm followed her and Ursa walked a few ways behind Tapeworm, always protective of his ward.

"Why are we here?" Tapeworm asked as he followed her.

"Our world isn't the only place that's falling apart," Max replied over her shoulder. She continued to walk through the woods. The three stopped only when she reached the edge of an overhanging cliff. She motioned Tapeworm to her side and pointed down. Tapeworm stood next to her and followed where she was pointing.

He didn't see anything; all he could see were little things moving around, he was sure that it was people. It seemed like they were in their own little village. He then noticed movement towards the left, moving close to the village. He strained hard to see, but then recognized what he was looking at.

Wolves.

A pack of them.

They came at a run, full out from two directions, racing straight for the unprotected crowd. It was like some classroom nature film. Like watching as a lion pride attacked a herd of antelope. Only this herd was human. This herd had to reservoir of lightning speed.

Helpless.

Panic struck them; they surged toward the middle, villagers at the edges seeing their doom approach on swift paws.

"Oh my god," Tapeworm said. His instinct to help immediately filled his veins. He clenched his hands into fists, his hands encased in a glowing, green light. "We have to help them." He turned to his guardian, who looked back at him. "Ursa, turn to your animal form and let's-"

"You can't." Max interrupted. "I told you, it's not really real. It's just a dream. But this is what's really going on." She turned to Tapeworm, her eyes filled with fear. "Earth isn't the only place that you have to save. You have to save the Elemental World too. The collapse…it wasn't the only problem. That was only because Gattaca's absence was starting to affect it. Now that he's back… something else is happening."

"Ursa was being controlled when he came back to me, when I got my powers back." Tapeworm said, thinking hard. "Do you think that it has something to do with this?"

Max nodded.

But what?

Tapeworm let out a sigh through his nose, turning his head away as the screams started to get louder. He placed his hands over his ears and they abruptly stopped. He didn't want to look down; just in case he saw something he didn't want to see. Instead, he turned to Max.

"Have you seen Canis?" He asked her.

Pain filled Max's eyes before she smiled a little. "Briefly," she replied. "Before she was being re-born."

"Re-born?" Tapeworm echoed.

Max took Tapeworm's hand and they went off into the air once more. When they landed, they were in the middle of an area that seemed like it was underground. Like he was in a cave, but the air was semi-dry, semi-wet. He could hear voices; he could hear people talking, and babies crying. Tapeworm followed Max down the tunnel until they came out in a area that was filled with woman that were dressed like nurses walked around little bassinets that covered the floor. Max led Tapeworm over to a bassinet and he looked down to see a baby sleeping quietly in one.

"I remember this place," Ursa said as he poked his head over the bassinet. "Barely," he added. "My mom said that I cried a lot when I was here."

"Babies do that," Max smiled. "You see, Tapeworm, this is like a hospital to the Element Kingdom, which is the area of the Element World that we're in. Women who are going to give birth come here to be sure that everything is ok. When the babies are born, they're taken here to be cared for before they can be taken home, just like human babies." She quickly corrected himself. "Well, they _are _human. But the difference is that these babies have the opportunity to become guardians, though not all of them do. Whenever a guardian is…killed, they have the choice of whether or not they want to be re-born, to be made the guardian to someone else, or to die along with their master.

"So Canis?" Tapeworm asked.

"She's over there," Max pointed before walking over to a bassinet that was in the back corner. When the three peered down into it, the baby girl that was inside, looked up at them with a curious look. When she looked at Max, you could see that her eyes lit up, but then she looked around at the other two around her and the light faded. "I know she knows me, subconsciously, but I don't know if she remembered me yet. She's going to be assigned to a new ward, that's what she and I both wanted."

"Max, this must be really hard for you." Tapeworm said gently.

"Ah, not really," Max shrugged. "I'm glad that she's going to help someone else, Chris. That's all that I could want." She turned to Tapeworm. "You guys really needed to see this, so you knew what was going on. Just as there's more like that's being brought in here, there's more like being taken away. And ther's something that's starting to take over."

"Do you know what it is?" Tapeworm asked, practically pleading with his eyes for her to tell him.

Max gave a sarcastic laugh. "Do we ever?"

All of a sudden, the room filled with the bright blue light once more. Max gave Tapeworm a sad smile as she moved forward and stood close to him. He knew what that meant; it was time for him to go. Tapeworm closed his eyes briefly as he nodded. When he opened them again, he gave Max a warm smile. She wrapped her arms around his waist and he did the same to her shoulders. He stood at a little over six foot and was almost exactly a foot taller than her so she rested her head on his shoulder right by his neck and he rested his chin on the top of her head. It wasn't as uncomfortable as Tapeworm thought it was going to be. He expected her to be cold, but like before, she was warm. He felt so at peace that he closed his eyes and stood there with her inhaling the faint scent of her perfume. Max could hear the soft murmur of his heartbeat and she tightened her arms around him and he responded by doing the same.

They didn't want to let go.

Not again.

Tapeworm gently leaned her head back and looked into her eyes. Max smiled back, just as softly as he was smiling at her. Tapeworm leaned down and pressed his lips to her lips. His tears began to fall harder than they ever had before. When he parted their lips he saw a soft smile on the lips he fell in love with 3 years ago.

That smile was the last thing he saw before the light came back and he was taken away again.

…

..

.

Tapeworm sucked in a breath as his eyes shot open. He looked around the room and realized that he was still in his bed in WingzCorp. He sat up and shook out his hair, running his hands over his face. It was just a dream.

_A dream?_

It felt too real to be a dream. But that didn't surprise him either. Their dreams were always something that each of them took seriously. It was something that they got answers from, but this time, all Tapeworm had were questions. He had to talk to someone about this, and he knew that there was only one person that could help him at a time like this.

Tapeworm quickly jumped out of bed and went over to the desk that was in the room. He pulled the top right drawer open and pulled out flashlight before he hurried from his room, blindly finding his way to Zack's and Cody's room. He didn't really know where he was going; WingzCorp was so big, he was sure that he would get lost thirty times during the day. But he was determined to find Cody and nothing was going to stop him at this point. When he reached the room, he knocked lightly before opening the door.

"Cody, are you awake?" he whispered loudly.

"How can I not be?" Cody's sarcastic voice responded from the left side of the room. Tapeworm closed the door behind him and quietly moved over to Cody's bed. "I could usually sleep with Zack's snoring before, but the fact that this room echoes is freaking ridiculous." Tapeworm's light laughter was drowned out by another one of Zack's loud snores. "What's wrong?"

Tapeworm turned on the flashlight and held it up so the two of them could see each other. Tapeworm smiled a little when he saw Blankie sitting around Cody's shoulders. _Some things never change. _Tapeworm sat down on the floor next to Cody's bed. The cold seeped through his clothes and into his bones.

"I had a dream, that I saw Max," Tapeworm said slowly. "And…I don't know if it was real or not, but it felt real. I could feel her, like; my hand didn't go through her. And she took me to the Element World and-"

"Wait, Tapeworm, slow down." Cody held up a hand. "You saw Max?" He looked a little skeptical.

"I'm not going crazy, Codes." Tapeworm said, already starting to feel defensive.

"I didn't say you were," Cody said mildly. "I'm just worried about you. You don't talk about what happened much, and if you bottle things up, that's not healthy." He waved a hand. "Take Crys or the Jacksons for example."

Tapeworm gave a wry smile. "Crys still won't tell you why she's mad at you?"

"No, but that's not the point." Cody said quickly.

Tapeworm gave a short laugh. It sounded like he couldn't believe what he was about to say."You know, when it came to death, I always wondered what would happen. My parents always told me about God and heaven and angels and everything. So…when Max died…" he trailed off for a moment and Cody nodded, urging him to continue. "I always wondered if she became an angel or whatever. Way up there in heaven, looking down on me. I would wonder if she could see me crying for her and what she thought. If she were in my dream I could see her face so clearly but when I woke up, it was as if her memory was slipping through my fingers. I hated it, I hated forgetting."

Cody frowned, seeming to know what he was feeling. That's why Tapeworm enjoyed talking to him so much; he always seemed to empathize with whatever it was that someone else was feeling. Cody used to get teased for being so sensitive, but it was something that Tapeworm always admired about him.

"Sorry, dude." He said quietly.

"It's alright," Tapeworm waved a hand. "But I swear I saw her in my dream tonight. I felt her. She was really there. She told me that there was something going on with the Element World and then she showed me. Something bad is going on there, Cody. Something there is what's taking over our guardians when they try to get back."

Cody nodded once. "Did you see any of our guardians?"

"I saw Canis," Tapeworm said. He then explained about the 'hospital room' that the babies were born in. "I never thought that the Elementals would live basically the same way that we did."

"Tape," Cody was one step behind. "How could you see Canis if she died?"

"Oh," Tapeworm licked his lips. "Max explained, saying that when guardians die, they have the option of actually dying along with their ward…or being re-born and becoming a guardian to someone else. Canis decided to be someone else's guardian."

"So we have hope, if our guardians die," Cody nodded, a sense of relief falling over him. "That's good." He then turned serious, looking at Tapeworm closely. "Why do I get the feeling that there's something that you're not telling me, though?"

Tapeworm hesitated. There were two things that he wasn't telling him. He wasn't telling him about the cloaked figure and the mirrors that he saw in his dream. And he wasn't telling him what he and Bailey were planning on doing. It was so complicated at this point, but he knew that he was going to explode if he didn't tell him something.

"I know that Core is up to something," Tapeworm said slowly. "I think that he's going to go and try to find the Element Stone, he has a few ideas…" He cleared his throat. "I was thinking of following him, to see if he actually does find it."

"Are you crazy?" Cody's eyes widened. "Don't you think that's really dangerous?"

"Yes," Tapeworm nodded. "But as one of the few of us that have our powers back, I think that it would be really helpful if we see what it can do. I'll do my best to stay out of sight so I don't have anyone else running on our tail."

"And what are the rest of us supposed to do?" Cody paused when Zack's snoring died down for a minute. But he rolled onto his other side, pulling his blanket up over his head and his snoring started once more. Cody rolled his eyes as if he was saying 'can you believe him?' Tapeworm smiled. Cody went back to the topic at hand. "Are we supposed to just sit here and wait for you?"

"No," Tapeworm shook his head. "You guys are going to work hard to try and get your powers back, and so your fighting instincts don't go to waste. If worse comes to worse, you have WingzCorp, Crystal, and whatever it is that Aaron can do, to help you guys."

"I still think it's a bad idea." Cody said slowly. "But I'm not going to stop you; I can tell that you won't be stopped no matter what I say."

Tapeworm nodded. He knew that he was threatening his trust with Cody by not telling him that Bailey was going too. Cody would be furious if…when he found out. It was something that they had to risk, cause if Cody tried to stop them, Bailey would be even more torn than she already was. That was the one thing that none of them liked about being in a relationship with all of this going on, besides potentially losing the other person; whether you admitted it or not, your view over what you would do quickly changed so the other person had some sort of a hold over your decisions.

Tapeworm didn't have to worry about that anymore.

"I'll keep your secret for now," Cody said. "But you know that I suck at lying. You're going to have to tell everyone else soon."

"I know." Tapeworm agreed, grateful.

"When are you going to leave?"

"As soon as Core does. I need to follow him."

"Alright," Cody held out a hand and Tapeworm grabbed onto it. The two drew towards each other and then slapped each other on the back. Cody then gave Tapeworm a real hug, which Tapeworm willingly returned. "Be safe, alright."

"I will." Tapeworm nodded before getting up and leaving the room.

Even when he was back in his bed, trying to get a few more hours of sleep, the cold never left his body.

* * *

It wasn't until early that morning that Tapeworm was shaken awake by Bailey. He silently nodded to her and she left the room she could get dressed and gather his things together. He pulled his backpack over his back and made sure to put his watch on before he left his room and followed Bailey outside of WingzCorp. He could hear Core's footsteps through the woods, loud at first, then growing fainter.

Ursa appeared at his side in a flash of green light and Tapeworm turned to him, running his hand over his fur. It was times like these that he wished that his guardian could fly, that way they wouldn't have to risk being seen, and they wouldn't have to walk or run most of the way. But at the same time, he enjoyed being one of the few elementals around them that didn't have a flying guardian. It made him feel special. Besides, what other bear did anyone know that could easily fell a tree with one swipe, as if moving it through cheese? Ursa looked back at him, his eyes showing the same thing that Tapeworm was feeling.

Determination and fear.

"Are you ready to go?" Bailey asked, hitching her backpack up onto her shoulders. She looked over her shoulder, listening as Core's footsteps started to disappear with the wind.

"Ready." Tapeworm replied.

* * *

**A/N: **Woo, a Tapeworm filled chapter. I hope that you guys liked it. Who knows what else will happen now that the two of them are gone? I'll update again soon. Thanks for the feedback so far!

Cheers,

-Riles


	17. Don't give up now!

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

* * *

Cody rubbed his arms as he walked through the seemingly endless hallway. He was looking for the kitchen, but it seemed that no matter where he went, it just turned out to be another room that he wasn't looking for. Part of him had to give Core some respect, the fact that he designed the building to be hard for someone to navigate if they stumbled upon it, as well as make it constantly moving, that was sheer genius. If only it didn't backfire on him so easily.

He was starting to give up hope on getting some breakfast when he turned another corner and spotted Crystal walking towards him, a book in one hand and an apple in the other. She looked up over the top of the book in time to side-step him, before she walked into him.

"If you're looking for the kitchen, it's that way," She pointed with her apple over her shoulder. "Better hurry, after Patrick gets through there, there's not going to be much food left."

"Thanks," Cody replied. He cracked his knuckles before hitting his palms together. "Look, can we talk about what happened?" He asked. "Between us? Just so we can clear the air?"

Crystal shrugged. "There's nothing to talk about," She turned her attention back to her book and continued down the hall, disappearing around the corner. Cody sighed, his shoulders slumping before he started off towards the kitchen again.

_First I get into a fight with Bailey, and then Tape leaves, and now Crys hates my guts more than ever. I'm having such a good day. _Cody shook his head. He brought his hands up and ran them over his face, letting out a heavy sigh. He walked into the kitchen, somewhat surprised to find stainless steel all over the place. Zack was standing at the stove, cooking something in a frying pan.

"Do you want eggs?" Zack asked, without turning around. "I don't know how well I can cook them, but anything has to be better than the way that mom made t hem." He added as Cody sat down at the table. Noah, who was sitting in a chair, eating a bowl of cereal pointed over at Zack and quickly shook his head, warning Cody not to eat it.

"No," Cody replied, he flashed Noah a smile. "I'm good. I'll probably just eat cereal or something." He reached out for the box of Cocoa Puffs that was sitting on the table and plunged his hand inside the box. "I used to hate this stuff," he muttered under his breath as he looked at the brown circles in his palm.

"It's better than you think," Noah said. He put his bowl up to his mouth and tilted his head back, draining the bowl of the chocolaty milk. "Especially if you like chocolate." He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and burped loudly. "Excuse me," he apologized before pushing back his chair. "What are you guys up to today?"

"I haven't really figured that out yet," Cody said. He yawned before popping the handful of cereal into his mouth. "Why?"

"Just saying," Noah shrugged as he put his bowl in the sink. He kept his back to the two boys. "If you find anything out, just let us know, yeah?" He walked out of the room and Cody leaned back in his seat, taking another handful of cereal.

"What was that about?" Zack asked as he turned off the burner under the frying pan. He carefully grabbed onto the handle of the pan and used a spatula to scoop the eggs onto his plate.

Cody shrugged. "Who knows? He's always been kind of quiet." He pointed out.

"Not him," Zack turned from the stove with his plate in hand. He went over to a cupboard and looked around before finding a plastic fork and placing it on his plate. "You." He insisted and walked over to the table, sitting across from him. He dropped down into the chair started in on his breakfast. "You're, like, not so annoying as you usually are in the morning."

"Bite me," Cody replied.

"I could," Zack pointed his fork at his brother. "But if I did, I'd be afraid that I'd be infected with your nerdiness." He laughed as Cody rolled his eyes and loudly pushed his hand into the cereal box. Zack watched him for a moment before motioning with his fork. "C'mon dude, I've known your face since we were born, I can always tell when something's bothering you."

Cody hesitated. He knew that he couldn't hide anything from his brother, he had tried and it never worked out. The only thing that was a blessing and a curse between them was that they could read each other so easily. They had that special twin bond that made them able to feel what each other was feeling or basically know what each other was thinking at the same time. It was moments like this that he really hated it.

"Alright," Cody set the cereal aside and rested his arms on his knees. "I ran into Crys this morning and I wanted to at least try and be friends again or something." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't know what I really wanted, but I tried to talk to her, and she wouldn't give me the time of day."

"Dude," Zack rested his forearms on the table. He gave his younger twin brother a hard look. "You treated her like a science experiment."

Cody felt his face grow hot. "I did _not_ treat her like a science experiment."

"Ok," Zack licked his lips. "You basically used her for her Dad, because he was able to give us better ideas with Elementals and everything. And then you became really preoccupied with it, casting her aside. If I were a girl, I'd hate your guts too."

"Gee thanks," Cody rolled his eyes.

"You're welcome." Zack replied. "If I were you, I'd just wait and give her time to-"

"But there's something else that I didn't tell you," Cody said, lowering his voice. "Or Bailey for that matter." That got Zack's attention. He froze in mid-chew, waiting to hear what Cody had to say. "Before the whole fight ended…before we found out that everything wasn't really over, Crys kissed me."

Zack's eyes widened for a minute. "Are you sure that she didn't do it because of the heat of the moment?" He asked.

"No, that only happens to you," Cody swiftly returned with a smirk.

Zack merely rolled his eyes. "Well, if I were you, I wouldn't tell Bailey, because that would just make things really awkward for you." He finished his breakfast and pushed his plate away from him. "But I would try to make Crys talk to you, so you can at least get everything out in the open. That way, you can try and figure things out, before it's too late."

"Yeah, I guess," Cody agreed.

"Anyway," Zack pushed himself up from his chair and went over to the sink to put his plate away. "I was thinking of working out or something," he turned around and leaned against the sink, crossing his arms over his chest. "Since we don't know what's going to happen in the near future. But since you're up, do you want to spar?"

"Yeah, why not?" Cody agreed. He then turned and grinned at his brother. "I haven't kicked your ass in a while, anyway."

"Ha," Zack rolled his eyes and led the way out of the kitchen.

Cody got up from his seat and followed him. Part of him felt really guilty, Zack hadn't noticed that he was just making conversation, to try and keep him from knowing that he was hiding something else. That Tapeworm left. Cody wasn't sure how long he could keep that a secret; everyone was going to find out that he was gone. They would probably start asking a lot of questions and he didn't have any answers. The guilt would probably kill him before that point, but still.

How blind could Zack be if he could tell that something else was wrong with him, but not see the big picture?

"Hey," Zack greeted Rhuben as he and Cody entered the weight room. She was sitting on the floor with a dumbbell in her hands. "You working out too?"

"I have to do something around here so I don't' go stir-crazy," Rhuben replied as she set the dumbbell down. "What are you guys up to?"

"Sparring practice," Cody replied. He and Zack took off of their shoes and rolled up the legs of their jeans. "Since we haven't done it in a while. Plus," he placed his hands on his hips. "It's probably better if we keep in shape in case something happens while we're waiting…for something to happen."

"I get ya," Rhuben agreed with a nod. She bent forward and started to twist from side to side, holding onto the dumbbell in her hands, doing an ab exercise. "Do you want me to referee?"

"If you don't mind," Zack said, moving to one side of the mat that was set up in the room. He fell into a fighting stance, Cody doing the same on the other side of the mat. "Ready?"

Cody nodded.

Zack moved quicker than Cody anticipated, but at the last moment, he managed to dodge to the side as Zack swung at him. When Zack used the momentum to swing another punch his way, Cody managed to dunk in time making an audible 'whoosh' sound as Zack's first sliced through the air. Cody leapt to the left, where the punch had originated; Zack wouldn't have enough time to balance again and bring another punch from that side. That gave Cody time to get out of the way of the second punch, which would come from the right at any sec-

Cody stumbled back as a punch landed square between his ribs, knocking the air out of his lungs. He took the next few seconds to heave and hack loudly, sucking wind. He tried to catch his breath, stunned in annoyance and shocked with admiration. He hadn't ever seen Zack be that good of a fighter before. Usually he acted like a wildfire, pun intended, swinging all over the place, not caring whether or not he hit something. But now he was fighting systematically, the same way that Cody usually did.

Zack bounced back and forth on the tips of his toes, arms up and waiting for Cody's next move.

"C'mon, don't give up now!" Rhuben instructed. She had moved from her position on the floor and was now standing off to the side, her arms crossed over her chest.

Cody charged forward, bringing up his right fist to catch Zack in the gut, like he had caught him seconds before. But Cody wasn't as fortunate, as Zack slowly smirked. Cody knew, at that point, that Zack had expected him to do that specific move. A quick jab to Cody's chin made his head snap back, and a shove to his shoulder brought him face to face with the mat.

Cody groaned, annoyed at himself.

_How did he know what to do?! _Cody shook his head, his chest heaving. _How could he __possibly__ know what I was planning? Hell, __I __didn't know what I was doing! _Herolled out of the way just as a fist swung at the spot previously occupied by his head. Cody heard Zack growl in frustration.

"Cody, you're not concentrating," Rhuben pointed out.

"I know that!" Cody snapped back at her. He brought his hands up to his hair and gripped onto the ends of it tightly, before lowering his fists to his sides once more. Zack stood off to the side, his arms crossed over his chest, studying his brother carefully.

"So why don't just do it and fight him?" Rhuben returned, not bothering to comment on his snapping at her. "How about this? What do you usually do when you try to concentrate?"

"Tai-Chi, usually," Cody said. "But I don't even think that that's going to help."

"Hey Codester," Zack started.

"You haven't called me that in years," Cody noted, slightly shocked.

"Something's bothering you," Zack continued. "And I know that that's not a long stretch, because all of us are bothered n some way," he motioned to himself and Rhuben as he crossed the mat. "But that doesn't mean that you should let it cloud your judgment. You told me that, shortly after we first awakened. You have to push everything that's bothering you aside, so we can focus on the one thing at the one moment in time."

"He's right," Rhuben agreed.

"But," Cody sighed, shaking his head. "You wouldn't understand." He muttered. "Everything with this, the Element Stone, being at WingzCorp, knowing that Gattaca wasn't the real thing that we had to beat, it's just…getting to me."

"It's getting to everyone, dude." Rhuben reassured him. "But you can't do anything about it, realistically. You can't just sit and wait for it to go away." She reached out and put an arm around his waist. "I used to think the same thing, that if you imagined that something isn't happening, it'll go away on its own, but it won't." She hugged him gently. "You have to be the one that goes after it, to get it to go away."

"But what if we can't?" Cody asked.

"We will." Zack said firmly.

"But what if we can't?" Cody repeated. "We don't know what we're going up against. We don't know how powerful this thing is, especially since we haven't actually fulfilled the prophecy."

He couldn't help but think back to the battle with Gattaca, where they thought that things were finally over.

_"Aren't you scared?" Cody asked without looking at his brother, watching Phantom intently._

_"Of course I'm scared," Zack replied with a nod as he took a step back and briefly glanced at his twin before looking back at his guarding. "But the need of wanting to free all of us from this…is making me fearless."_

_Zack's body emitted a red aura along with Blazen's. A peaceful look came across his face as he floated into the air, next to Blazen. Suddenly they were wrapped in flames. From the ground, Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, Sydney, Crystal, Reihu, Tapeworm, and Cody watched in awe. Although the roar of the flames surrounded them, they could still hear Blazen and Zack talking._

_"We will become one…" Blazen muttered. "In the heart of the flames…"_

_"To protect my friends," Zack muttered. "I need courage."_

_"We will become one," Blazen and Zack muttered in unison as they glowed brighter. Zack let out a scream as the flames got higher and started to wrap around them until it formed a fire ball around them._

_"FUSION FORM!" They called out in unison._

_"Fusion Form," Sydney repeated with a grin._

_There was a loud explosion as the flames shot everywhere. Crystal and Cody used their ice and water attacks to stop the flames from burning them, waiting for the heat to subside. When it did, what they saw amazed them beyond belief._

_Zack landed back on the ground but his appearance changed. He now had red wings on his back and he held his sword in his hand. He had red markings on his cheeks along with a cocky smile on his face._

_"Humans are imperfect, and completely powerless. With the power of the Elementals, it is possible to change the world as we please." Gattaca said as he slowly walked towards them, his eyes set on them with deep hatred. "No war, no famine, no suffering. All we have to do is make a few sacrifices. But that's no problem. Human history has shown that sacrifices are needed in order to accomplish anything." Core explained calmly, still with a smirk on his face. "And together with the sealed prince of the Elemental Kingdoms, and the blessing of God, I will change the world."_

_Cody instinctively took a step back. "Zack can't do this alone!" He said to himself._

_"He doesn't have to." Phantom said softly. Cody turned to his guardian and nodded. He gasped as he was lifted into the air and glowed blue. Phantom rose with him as water surrounded them and formed what looked like a bubble._

_"We will become one…" Phantom muttered. "From the depths of the ocean…"_

_"To protect my friends, I'll count on our friendship," Cody muttered._

_"We will become one…" Phantom and Cody muttered in unison as they glowed brighter. Cody let out a scream as the water rushed by him. "FUSION FORM!"_

_Cody landed back on the ground but his appearance changed. He now had blue wings on his back and he held his staff in his hand. He had blue markings underneath each eyelid._

_The one with the eyes red as fire, the one with the eyes shocking as sea, the ones whose inheritance the white pure blade. To voyage eighteen years from since they'd come, or the world in their hands would cease to become_

_"__Blazing Nova!"__ Zack called as he swung his sword. A loud explosion occurred as the tip of the sword fired off a surge of fire at an abnormal pace, hitting Gattaca in the chest. For once, Gattaca let out an intense scream of pain. When the fire subsided, his held onto his chest, his body quaking._

_"No…" Gattaca gasped. "It can't be."_

_"__Drowning Aqua__!" Cody swung his staff. There was another loud explosion as the gem in his staff fired out a wave of hard water. It slammed into Gattaca, causing him to scream in pain once more, sending him to his knees._

_"No, no, no, no, NO!" Gattaca shouted._

_A beam of light show down from the sky and hit Zack's and Cody's sword and staff. Electric, wind, and spirit energy moved down with the energy of light as it lifted the sword and staff into the air. As they watched, the two weapons blended together to form a heavy blade that held the attributes of Zack's sword and Cody's staff. Cody walked over to Zack and the two held out their hands as the sword floated down into their grasp._

_"The blade…" Cody whispered._

_"The ones who inheritance the white pure blade," Zack whispered back._

_He lifted his head and looked at Cody. Their eyes met and the two of them slowly grinned at each other. They tightened their grip on the sword and focused their attention back on Gattaca, who was struggling to get to his feet._

_"This is for our friends," Zack murmured._

_"This is for the elementals." Cody added._

_The two brought the blade up above their heads and swung it down in a sharp arc. An arc of light purple energy, mixing the red energy from Zack and the blue energy from Cody, struck Gattaca head on. There was an implosion that knocked everyone off of their feet. The orange light went away as the sky returned to its normal blue color, the black and purple clouds disappeared. The lightning stopped and the sun started to shine once more, immediately giving everyone a sense of relief._

_The blade disappeared as Blazen and Phantom left Zack's and Cody's bodies, falling to the ground in their small forms._

Everything was so easy then. But now….there was just so much that they didn't know. But it wasn't that it was the first time anyone had thought this. It was a normal thought that ran through their heads over the years. Were they really doing the right thing? Were they cut out for this? Cody usually tried to push those thoughts away, but now that Tapeworm was gone, to go after Core to see if he could find the Element Stone, it was coming back full force.

"Cody," Rhuben said suddenly. "Maybe you-"

She cut herself off, her head whipping to the side. Her eyes narrowed for a minute and then they widened before she hurried over to Zack and grabbed onto his arm. She then hurried back across the room and tackled Cody to the ground before throwing Zack down as well. Cody's eyes shut instinctively when there was a bright flash of light. His hands flew over his ears as there was a loud explosion. When he opened his eyes, the room was dark, there was smoke everywhere.

His ears were ringing.

Cody scrambled up and felt around for Zack and Rhuben. They were there beside him, getting up as well. He could tell from their sounds of discomfort that their ears were ringing as well.

"A bomb?" He whispered to himself.

Cody suddenly let out a gasp as he was hauled to his feet, his arms forced tightly behind his back. He let out a cry of pain and was forced down to his knees before being shoved onto his stomach. He felt Rhuben scramble to her feet and move away from him as Zack was grabbed as well.

"What the hell?" Zack cried, as his arms were forced behind his back. He twisted his head around and glared at Diamond, who grinned back at him, night-vision goggles over his eyes. Zack struggled to get away as Diamond started to wrap a shiny sort of material around his hands. "Let go!"

"It's Mylar," Diamond said as he continued to wrap Zack's hands. He looked up at his partner, who was holding tightly onto Cody. "It's a reflective surface. So I wouldn't try to turn on your mojo: you'd fry your own hands."

Cody struggled to get out of his captor's grasp, but he was stuck tight. He turned his head to the side and noticed Rhuben crouching in the corner of the room, her hands starting to glow a light purple. He didn't allow the shock of her having her powers stop him from thinking clearly. She had to get out of there, to avoid being captured, they didn't need saving.

"Rhu, run!" He shouted as loud as he could. He sucked in a lungful of smoke and started to cough, tears coming to his eyes. He saw Rhuben hesitate, lightly lowering her arms. "RUN! GO NOW!"

Rhuben nodded before she disappeared from the room.

Cody's arms were bound behind his back and he was pulled back up to his knees, hands tightly gripping his shoulders. Across from him, he watched as Diamond finished tying up Zack and got him to his knees as well. He produced a gun from one of his cargo pants pockets.

"Well, you seem to be pretty healthy here," Diamond said, lightly poking Zack in the cheek with the barrel of the gun. "Last I checked your knee was completely blown off."

Despite the circumstances, Zack managed a half smile.

"Let's see what you'll do if we hurt your brother," Diamond nodded to Cody's captivator. Cody twisted from side to side, but the man behind him tightened his grip even further. Cody let out a cry of pain, feeling his bones creak. Diamond now spoke to Cody. "Don't try anything stupid, we've already got the rest of your friends held up, one move from you guys, and one of them will get it too."

"You're bluffing!" Zack spat.

"Am I?" Diamond replied. He chuckled. "We really don't want to have to hurt any of you guys, but we will, if we have to, just to get you back to headquarters."

"Where is that?" Cody finally asked.

"Like we're actually going to tell you." Diamond snorted.

"Then you have nothing." Cody continued, hoping to use reverse psychology to get him to talk.

Diamond's eyes merely flickered over Cody's face. He nodded at the man behind Cody and before Cody could move, he let out a scream of pain, feeling a burning sensation on the back of his neck. He had never felt anything like it before. Even when he was an elemental and had been burned in a fight, he was able to use his own water powers to heal himself. He hadn't been so badly hurt in a long time; he had actually forgotten what it was like. Cody's eyes snapped shut, and he sucked in air through his teeth.

He could hardly hear Zack's cry of fury.

He heard it, but then the man's screams overtook it.

All of a sudden, Cody felt himself falling forward as he was let go. He rolled onto his side and gasped when he saw the man that was holding onto him.

He was on his knees, holding onto his head; his face was red and his eyes were bulging out. As each second passed, his screams got higher and more frantic. Blood started to leak from the man's eyes and from his mouth. A blister appeared at the base of the man's neck and grew bigger before their eyes. Cody couldn't help but watch. He wanted to look away, but he couldn't. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Zack and Diamond watching as well, their faces showing different levels of disgust.

The man continued to scream, his face a blood red now. His eyes had sunken into his head. All of a sudden, a gurgling sound came out of the man's mouth. Cody turned his head away before there was a popping sound and he felt himself getting splashed with something. The smell of cooked meat hit his nose. He slowly opened his eyes and turned his head back, what he saw, confirming his suspicions.

He, Zack, and Diamond were covered in blood.

The man's head had exploded.

His body lay prone on the ground, chunks of flesh, bone, and brain matter were splattered around, and blood was dripping everywhere.

"Dear god," Diamond whispered. He pulled a walkie-talkie out of his pocket. "Transport them with extreme caution. I repeat, transport with extreme caution. You don't know what kind of powers they have."

It suddenly dawned on Cody what had happened. He slowly turned his head and looked at back, finding his brother staring back at him. His blue eyes were wide and his lips were slightly parted. Blood was dripping down the side of his cheek.

They both knew what happened.

Cody closed his eyes as the weight of the truth fell on him. He didn't know how long he laid there, five, ten, twenty minutes, but before he knew it, he had a bag put over his head and was forced to his feet and out of WingzCorp. He was then put into the back of a vehicle and held still as he was driven somewhere.

_They're probably clearing out WingzCorp, taking us somewhere to be tested on. _Cody thought to himself, trying to keep himself from screaming.

Cody felt himself being taken out of the vehicle and walked into some sort of building. He walked for a long time, able to hear a few voices as they turned down corridors. He could smell the scent of medicine, kind of like a hospital, but he doubted that's where he was. Finally, he heard the sound of a door being open and was shoved inside, onto the floor. Cody fell heavily onto his side, he blinked rapidly when the hood was pulled off of his head and his arms were unbound. He started to swing at whoever had him, but his arms were put in front of him and handcuffed together.

The door then closed and he could hear footsteps walking away.

Cody took the chance to take in his surrounding; he was in a cell of some sort. But it had a few better accommodations than a jail cell would. Cody heard movement and walked to the front of his cell. He pressed his face against the bars and looked at the cell across from him, letting out a sigh of relief when he saw Zack.

"You ok, Buddy?" Zack asked quietly. Always making sure that his little brother was safe.

"I' m fine." Cody nodded. "You?"

"I'm good." Zack agreed. "I hope the others are ok."

"I'm sure they're fine." Cody reassured him. The two were silent for a moment, and then Cody had to ask. "How'd you do that?" Cody asked in a whisper. "You, like, cooked his head or something."

"I don't know," Zack whispered back. He shook his head fretfully. "I've never been able to do that before." He turned and looked at Cody with eyes so haunted that it made Cody gasp lightly. "If this is what I can do…with my powers coming back…I don't think I want them anymore."

* * *

**A/N: **Since the last chapter focused on Tapeworm, I wanted a chapter that focused on Zack and Cody (though the others are there at some points as well). I'm thinking of rotating the focus on the four of them (three if I put Zack's and Cody's parts together) for most of the story (with side parts of the other characters since I need to show the start of the plot with Patrick, Noah, and Sydney) as the story goes on.

I hope that you guys liked it; also, I hope the violence didn't gross you out at some points. Maybe I should put up a warning for it.

I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	18. A look into the past II

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

* * *

Nathan paced back and forth in front of the dorm building. He looked at his watch before he started to pace again. Everyone that passed him looked at him funny. At that point he was used to it. He already got weird looks, because he was a loner of some sort of his class, but now with the rumors about him, Trethaway, Christian, and Reed were flying around, he was getting more attention than he wanted.

Nathan turned back to the dorm as the door opened and Reed and Christian walked out. "Finally," Nathan said in exasperation. "What took you so long?"

"Do you know how long it took for my roommate to fall asleep?" Reed asked as he rolled his eyes. He reached out and pulled up the hood on his sweatshirt. "It was all I could do not to knock him out myself." He held up a fist to added emphasis.

"What about you?" Nathan turned to Christian.

Christian shrugged. "I was just doing a bit more research before I left…lost track of time."

"Was there anything that you found out?" Nathan asked as the three walked off of the porch and started across campus. The starlight twinkled overhead, their footsteps echoing across the quad. "Anything else we didn't already know?"

"I was looking more at the theories of there being a different world out there," Christian replied. "You know, the idea of there being a Heaven and a Hell, I broadened the idea of there being another world that goes with the Elementals." He licked his lips. "I found some websites that had the same ideas. That Elementals come from a specific world that we can't see."

"Then how would that explain Trethaway and all of those others that we found?" Reed asked.

"Probably…that there are more Elementals than we know of," Nathan said, thinking out loud. "We already determined that the government has been following it for a while, so they know something. They had the picture of that one person, maybe they've tracked him down. I propose that we figure out the identity of that person, track him down, and ask questions."

"What if he doesn't take us seriously?" Reed pointed out. "If we do find him, the person could _easily _hide that he is an Elemental."

"And Elemental has a mark, we know that," Nathan concluded. "We just look for that on him. If it's not visible, then we have to trick him into showing us his powers."

"And how do you propose we do that?" Christian asked.

"I can't think of everything," Nathan said with a shrug. "I mean, sure, basically this is all my fault, if I hadn't been goofing around in the first place, we wouldn't have found this out. But maybe we were meant to."

"Meant to do what?" Reed scoffed. "Save the world?"

'How can we do that without powers?" Christian agreed.

"I didn't say we had to save the world, I just said that maybe it was a good thing that we found out about this," Nathan said. He walked up the steps of a newer looking dorm building and knocked on the window of the door.

He tilted his head back and looked at the sky. Was there really another world up there? Were they meant to find out everything about the Elementals that they had so far? If it was as big as they originally thought, and the government was keeping it a secret, does that mean that it was something that they should fear? Then there was the fight that they had gotten into with Trethaway. They couldn't explain their bruises to Health Services, and now there were the rumors. Even if they tried to dispel of the rumors, they wouldn't be able to keep it out of their minds.

Not if there was the chance that he could attack someone else.

"Yes?" Ruriko poked her head out of the door. "Oh, hi." She pushed the door open further and held it open for the boys to walk through. "We were starting to think that you weren't coming by."

"Roommate problems," Christian replied as the three boys followed her through the girl's dorm building. They climbed the stairs to the fourth floor and then entered the first room on the right. Kristin was sitting on her bed, looking through a notebook.

"Hey," she greeted when the boys walked into the room. "Make yourselves comfortable, sit down anywhere." She said, not moving from her spot. She placed her hands in her lap and watched as the boys shuffled nervously, not sure where it was safe for them to sit down. She looked over at Ruriko and rolled her eyes as they chose to sit on the floor.

"Alright, let's cut to the chase here," Ruriko said, sitting down on her own bed, placing a pillow in her lap. "We know that you guys know about Elementals," She said and then turned to Reed and Christian. "We confronted Nathan about what happened between you guys and Trethaway and he admitted the whole thing."

"It's not for the reason that you would think," Kristin continued when she noticed the glares that Christian and Reed sent Nathan. "We know more about Elementals than you would think."

"How much better?" Christian asked, crossing his legs.

"A lot, considering our grandfather is one," Kristin gave a half smile. "He was always open about it, and he told our father things about it, just in case he had to deal with and Elemental. So whenever we would visit him, he would tell us about it too."

"So if there are any questions that you have, feel free to ask." Ruriko nodded. "We believe that you guys found out about it for a reason, and we hope that we can help you figure out what that reason is."

"Why do you want to help us so badly?" Reed asked. He was a bit suspicious. With a topic that not many people knew about, you never knew who you could trust with this sort of thing.

"Because our grandfather warned us that a lot was going to happen as we got older," Ruriko explained. "I don't know what to explain it exactly, but being an Elemental, you're directly connected to the Elemental world through your guardian as well as through your dreams." Her eyes narrowed. "And our grandfather and father would talk about his dreams a lot and what it meant."

"Just to warn us for the future, as being an Elemental usually runs in the family," Kristin concluded. "Though it can skip generations."

"So there are a lot more Elementals out there than we originally though?" Nathan asked, his eyebrows rising.

"A lot," Kristin agreed. "1 in every 5 people is an Elemental, if they awaken at least." Kristin added. "But that's not why we called you over," She closed her notebook and held it up. "This is our notebook that we have filled with everything that we already knew about Elementals." She held it out. "We want you guys to fill in what you've learned, so we can get a composite idea of what's going on."

"What's the other thing?" Reed asked as he took the notebook and stared to flip through it.

"Our grandfather, he lives in Japan, and we believe that he can help us get more insight on what's going on," Ruriko said."And we have a break coming up soon; we were thinking that you guys would like to come with us when we ask him about his recent dreams and experiences."

All of a sudden, the room started to darken. The lights went out and it went pitch black. Nathan's eyes darted around the room. He could hear Ruriko quickly get off of her bed and move over towards the closet. He heard the door open and things start to move around as she frantically searched for something. Nathan started to shiver as the room's temperature started to drop. He could hear Reed and Christian starting to shiver as well.

"_If you leave I will find you. If you die I will follow you. You're not going to get rid of me._"

Nathan's head swam and he could feel himself starting to lose consciousness.

He fell over onto the floor, gasping for air, feeling as if his body was being slowly crushed between two large hands.

All of a sudden, there was a bright flash of light, the crushing feeling went away, the words stopped repeating themselves, and he regained consciousness. Nathan slowly pushed himself off of the floor, holding a hand to his forehead. It was pounding with a slight headache, but other than that, he was fine. Reed and Christian still lay on the floor, breathing heavily.

Nathan shielded his face as the lights came back on and he looked over at Kristin, who was still sitting on the bed, looking at the boys with concern.

"Are you ok?" she asked.

"Yeah," Christian managed to reply, taking in a deep breath. "What was that?"

"Trethaway," Kristin explained. "He's been doing that for a while now, we think he's trying to keep us from plotting against him. He used his darkness powers to try and take you guys over."

_Darkness powers? Take us over? _Nathan shook his head, willing the headache to go away. They didn't know what they were up against. He had knocked them out so easily back then, and that was just up close. If Trethaway was able to do that and not be in the room at the time, who knew how strong he really was.

"The only way that we've managed to keep him at bay for a while is because of this," Ruriko closed the closet door and held up a jar. Inside was a stone hanging off of a string attached to the top of the jar. She handed the jar to Reed so the boys could look at it. Upon closer inspection they saw every color of the rainbow in the stone, though it mostly showed white. "It's an Element Stone." She explained.

"_An _Element Stone?" Christian repeated. "As in…more than one?"

"Yes, there's one for the main Elements, that we're aware of so far," Kristin explained. "But our grandfather thinks that there are more of them out there that haven't been discovered yet.

"That's the Element Stone that represents Light," Ruriko said as she took the jar out. "It's the only thing that's been able to help us every time Trethaway tries something." She turned back to the boys. "That's the reason that we're going to Japan, to see if we can find any more and to get more answers. For all we know, Trethaway has one in his possession, and that's not good."

"So, are you in?" Kristin asked. "To going to Japan?"

"Yes," Reed said with a nod, speaking up for the other boys. "We'll go with you."

"But there's something that we have to do first," Nathan said. "We have to check out Trethaway's office to see if he has a Stone."

* * *

**A/N: **Just so you know, the recent 'look to the past chapters' are done short on purpose (compared to the other chapter of the fic). I want them to be little scenes that don't show the whole picture of what's happening/answers some questions until it gets further along in the story. So the first ones are short, but they get longer as the story goes on, because it answers more questions.

Cheers,

-Riles


	19. He wasn't sure if they were going to win

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

* * *

Blazen let out a curse as he fell to the ground.

He quickly pulled himself to his feet before he started running again. Branches scratched his face, stinging his arms and legs, but he continued to run as fast as he possibly could. Every now and then he would look over his shoulder, wondering how close his assailant was to him. He could hear the heavy breathing behind him.

Blazen quickly turned and punched a fist forward, allowing a steam of fire to shoot out in a straight line. A straight line burned through the foliage behind him, but it missed his target. Blazen let out another curse as his assailant dodged the attack and continued to rush after him. Blazen made a face, trying to decide what to do.

Finally, he closed his eyes, allowing himself to tap into his full power. He leapt up into the air, tapping into the power of his animal spirit, and transformed into an eagle. With a quick down stroke of his wings, he took off into the air, soaring through the clouds. He didn't dare look to see if he was still being chased. He knew that he was.

Blazen quickly flew a few miles before he landed again. Once his feet touched the ground, he turned back to his human form and continued walking until he reached a field. The grass in the field was so high that it reached well over his head. But it was the perfect cover. He pushed his way through the field until he reached a clearing that had been made. His brother, Phantom, and their friends DalFang, DeathLiger, ThunderTatsu, SilverTatsu, and SpiritSaru were sitting round, waiting for him.

"Were you followed?" SpiritSaru asked, his bright blue eyes looking at Blazen curiously.

"Yep," Blazen nodded as he sat down, crossing his legs. "I think everyone's being followed now. It's only a matter of time until they find out about this place as well." He stretched his back. "Dricer and Ursa were lucky to get out of here when they did,"

"It's not that they were able to get _out_," Phantom corrected his brother. "It's that they were able to get _away_ and get back to their wards."

"True," Blazen replied.

"Have you been able to contact Rhuben at all?" Phantom asked, turning to DeathLiger, who was lying on his back on the ground, looking at the sky. "She was able to awaken again, which is good for them, but I'm not sure how much longer they can defend themselves."

"Especially since they're awakening so slowly," SilverTatsu added. "Slower than we expected."

"I've been trying," DeathLiger sat up and rested his arms behind him, using his hands to keep him balanced. He flipped his black hair out of his purple eyes. "But every time I would try to sneak away, one of _them_ would come to attack me. I just hope that Mistress Rhuben is able to keep a good control over her powers."

"I was hoping the same thing for Zack," Blazen shook his head. "But I can already tell feel that his powers are going to go out of control fast. Especially since he and Cody are the stronger ones."

"That was always a problem in itself," DalFang remarked. "Not knowing when they were going to awaken once more, not knowing that this was going to happen." He vaguely gestured around him as the other guardians nodded slowly.

"Did you all see Ursa, Tapeworm, and Max when they came in here?" Phantom asked suddenly, a serious expression crossing his face. He continued when the others shook their heads. "Max brought Tapeworm in, to the Element World in his dream. She showed him what's been going on while we've been apart from our wards and they went to see how Canis was progressing." He shook his head. "It's a good thing that Tapeworm wasn't shown everything that has been going on here or else we would have to worry about the others coming in here in their dreams."

"Why would that be a bad thing?" SpiritSaru asked. "Wouldn't it be helpful if they came in here, maybe the others could be awakened that way too?"

"Not if they get to them," ThunderTatsu muttered.

Blazen slowly nodded.

Ever since he and the other guardians had left Zack, Cody, and the rest of their wards and gone back to the Element World, things had gone downhill fast. They, like their wards, had believed that everything that they had needed to do as guardians was over and that they were going to live out their lives with their families until they grew old enough to have families of their own. Things were great at first; they went back to their normal lives; helping their different villages in the best ways that they could. Much like they would in the modern world, but without technology. Most of the lives that they lived would probably be compared to farm life, though not exactly the same. Things were fine at first; time had passed by with no incident.

Then some of the animals started to break away from the villages that they had lived in and started to turn rogue. Wolves, lions, tigers, dogs, snakes, dragons, any animal that you could think of that had been 'domesticated' and potentially used in a spirit animal ceremony, had all started to run amuck and join those that hadn't been domesticated. Different areas were starting to become attacked in some of the weirdest ways. Areas that were represented by water; where the ceremony that would represent a guardian getting the ability of controlling water as well as receiving their animal spirit was attacked by thunder and lightning. Areas that were represented with spirits were attacked by anything that could potentially gain the upper hand against it. No one could find the source of the attacks, but it was starting to happen more and more frequently.

Geneva and Gattaca had been called in to find out what had been causing the attacks, but before they could come up with a definitive answer, they had gone back to assist Bailey, practically rendering the Element World helpless. Those that inhabited the Element World were essentially now stuck to defend themselves the best way they could.

Then a dark cloud had descended upon the Element World. If someone tried to leave their home or if someone tried to travel to figure out what was going on, they would be attacked. The problem was no one could see what was attacking them. The thing would move so fast, and they would adapt quickly enough to defeat their opponent that no one stood a chance. They were making it harder for the guardians to be able to reunite with their Masters and Mistresses as well. Whenever they would try, or when their ward would awaken once more, they would be attacked. So far, from what they knew, only Ursa, Dricer, and a few other guardians were able to get out and return to their wards.

Unfortunately, none of the others were able to contact their wards and tell them exactly what was going on. They all knew that there were other Elementals in the human world that had been in the same predicament as them, but if they didn't show themselves to Zack, Cody, and the others, then they were essentially on their own. When DeathLiger tries to get to Rhuben, he had been so brutally attacked that he had been in medical care for months. (On Earth it would feel like a matter of minutes, as time in the Element World moved faster than on Earth.)

"At this point I think we should focus on the fact that one; what we originally believed was the prophecy hasn't come true," DalFang spoke up, his red eyes slowly moving around the circle. "And two; no matter if we get through to our wards we're going to be momentarily taken over by something and can't control our actions."

"What do you propose we do?" SpiritSaru asked.

"I don't know," DalFang admitted. "I just think that at this point, we should focus on that and figure out what's really going on before any of the rest of us decide to try and get to our Masters and Mistresses again. Ursa and Dricer can handle what they need to handle while they're there."

"Do you think that's wise?" Phantom looked unconvinced. "Even though we can't actually see them, and we haven't been able to get into their dreams lately, it's probably not going to take long for them to get caught."

"Something's already gone down," DeathLiger said slowly, closing his eyes. "I can feel it, something really bad is happening down there."

Blazen shook his head, putting his face in his hands. He had never felt so helpless before. How were they supposed to help their friends if it would just hurt them even more if they tried to get back to them? How were they going to figure out what was going on with who was behind them being attacked without potentially getting themselves killed? Then that would hurt their wards even further. He never knew that things would get that complicated with them. But it was like his father had said when the Element World started to collapse onto Earth; nothing was going to be as simple as it had been before.

"So what are we going to do?" SpiritSaru asked.

Before anyone could reply, the weeds around them rustled and Rudin, Julius's guardian, came blasting into the clearing. His side was ripped open and bleeding, his hand was pressed over the wound, trying to stop the bleeding the best that he could. His left eye was swollen shut, but he had a powerful glint in his eye. He took a couple of deep breaths before addressing the barrage of questions that were thrown his way.

"Our home is under attack," he said quickly. "I don't know what they are, but it's something that's really strong, I need your help."

"Let's go," Blazen leapt to his feet and followed Rudin through the field, the others behind him. The eight guardians raced back to their home village, staring in shock at the carnage that greeted them.

They could see some people that they had grown up with lying on the ground, bleeding. Blazen could see his mother viciously fighting off what looked like a human, but had a darker pallor to it. Every time she would strike her opponent, he would quickly heal himself. DalFang, DeathLiger, ThunderTatsu, SilverTatsu, SpiritSaru, and Rudin quickly rushed by him, joining in on the fight. Blazen hardly noticed; he wasn't even sure if Phantom was by his side at that point. He could only focus on his mother.

Blazen let out a strangled cry when he watched her get hit hard in the chest, causing her to fall to the ground. Phantom surged ahead and Blazen was a few steps behind him, each of them running as fast as they could.

"Mom!" Phantom called, getting her attention.

Blazen allowed his fist to burs t into flames, and he shoved it forward, into the other human's stomach. Blazen watched in confusion as a hole appeared where the stomach should have been. But the human didn't even flinch as the hole slowly closed in on itself, using something that looked like vines to pull its body back together.

"What are you?" Blazen whispered, his eyes lifting to the human's.

"Arbori," the human smiled widely, sharp teeth that resembled rocks sticking out of his lips. "That's what she calls us anyway."

"Who's she?" Phantom demanded. He was kneeling by his mother's side, gently holding onto her shoulders, helping her off of the ground. "Who do you work for?" His grip tightened on his mother's shoulders when the Arboris merely continued to smile. "Answer me, dammit!"

Blazen and Phantom reacted at the same time. As Blazen cupped his hands and shot a stream of fire towards the Arboris, Phantom raised his hands in the air towards the sky. A cloud appeared above his head and when he brought his hands back down, a rush of hard water came shooting out of the cloud in a downpour and shot wards the Arboris. The Arboris simply allowed the attacks to hit him before delivering a blow to the two of them so fast that they barely had a chance to blink before they were on the ground.

Blazen rolled onto his side, coughing as he wrapped his arms around his stomach. He could hear the cries of his friends as they were locked in a heated battle with other Arbori. Blazen briefly squeezed his eyes shut before rolling onto his stomach and pushing himself up. He watched as Phantom managed to hit the Arboris in the leg before he himself was hit across the face and sent back to the ground. All of a sudden, the Arbori turned and fled the scene.

"What the hell was that?" Blazen muttered to himself, still holding onto his stomach. Each breath in felt like a knife stabbed him. "What the hell are they?"

"Mom," Blazen turned at the sound of Phantom's voice and crawled over to his mother and brother. Phantom had helped her to sit up. "Mom, are you ok?" He asked, his blue eyes searching his mother's face in concern.

"I'm fine," Shiva replied with a nod. She pushed her brown hair out of her blue eyes, giving another nod. "You don't have to worry about me, boys." Blazen and Phantom helped her to her feet.

"Where's Dad?" Blazen asked.

"He went to send the message that we were attacked again," Shiva replied. Her face took on a serious tone. "There's not going to be much of our village left if we can't figure out who they're working for and what they want." Her face then softened as she reached out towards her sons. "Promise me you'll be careful."

"Of course, Mom," Blazen replied with a nod.

"At least now we know what we're trying to stay safe from," Phantom said.

He crossed his arms over h his chest. But that didn't mean that they knew how to defeat what it was. If they were their big opponent this time, they had a big battle on their hands. And this time he wasn't sure if they were going to win.

* * *

**A/N: **Next chapter will go back to Bailey and Tapeworm. I hope you guys enjoyed a look with the guardians.

Cheers,

-Riles


	20. Maybe things would finally get better

CHAPTER NINETEEN

* * *

Bailey closed her mouth and silenced a whimper that threatened to come out. She crouched down and felt along her right ankle, feeling the loose skin and the blood that seeped down into her sock. She had been badly scratched by a branch that she didn't see. It had gotten caught in front of her left leg and behind her right leg and when she moved forward, it had drawn a line across her skin.

"Are you ok?" Tapeworm asked in a hushed whisper. He crouched along beside her and felt the wound. "It's not that bad."

"Yeah, but it hurts," Bailey replied. She pushed herself to her feet and looked about twenty feet in front of her (the only time she was grateful for her 20/20 vision, as when she was a kid she wanted glasses) and saw Core still walking stealthily ahead of her and Tapeworm.

He didn't know that they were following him.

"How much longer do you think he's going to go?" Bailey asked as she and Tapeworm started walking again. "I thought that he was going to go to the government but…we're still in Boston."

"He may have figured that there was another place to look at before he went to DC," Tapeworm replied. He then paused. "Unless he's going to…where the army stays when they were in Boston." He suddenly stopped, throwing his arm out and halting Bailey's steps. He licked his lips. "You know how Boston is being overrun with the army and stuff, trying to get footage of us around?"

Bailey nodded.

"They have to have a place to stay, and the only place that I can think of that they could have taken over, with the evacuation that happened before, is the Massachusetts State House."

Bailey slowly nodded. It made sense. It was big, it held a sense of political power, and it was probably the last place that anyone (who knew about what was going on) would look for a stone that held so much power it could probably wipe the United States off the face of the Earth. That's probably where they had come from when the attacked Rhuben, Zack, and Patrick. If there was any place besides DC that was held as a headquarters for them, it would be the State House. Especially because it was where Core was staying and he was the one that had started the whole thing by hacking into the government in the first place.

"That must be where we're going," Bailey agreed.

"We should get there first," Tapeworm said, backing up a few paces. "At this point, I don't care whether or not Core finds the Stone; we need to check it out to see what we're dealing with." He held out an arm. "Climb on."

Bailey looked at him incredulously. "Climb on, what?" she questioned.

"Climb on my back," Tapeworm said patiently. When Bailey didn't move, he continued. "Ursa is a bear, I'm sure that we can't get anywhere near the State House without anyone seeing a bear. Then we'd have more cameras following us than we can afford, especially since we don't know what happened to the footage with Dricer. I can get there faster by running than I can on Ursa."

Bailey continued to hesitate.

"I'm not going to let you fall off," Tapeworm reassured her.

"Ok," Bailey walked over to him with a slight limp. "If you're sure." She grabbed onto his shoulders and jumped up onto his back. She then wrapped her arms around his neck, tight enough so that she would stay on, but not so that he couldn't breathe. She then wrapped her legs around his waist, holding on as tightly as she possibly could.

"Ready?" Tapeworm asked.

"Ready," Bailey replied.

The words barely got out of Bailey's mouth before Tapeworm started running. She could hear nothing but a hurricane wind in her ears. She could feel nothing but the manic bouncing against Tapeworm's back, rattling up through every bone in her body. That and Tapeworm's hands on her legs, holding onto her, pushing her, again and again grabbing her, righting her, guiding her on a ride that made the craziest roller coaster Bailey had ever experienced look like a quiet stroll.

Up a road.

Down the highway, slaloming through abandoned or moving cars. Then a blistering few seconds of tearing through Boston. A turn so sharp that Tapeworm lost his grip and she was airborne; flying through the air. Tapeworm quickly skidded to a stop and turned back, racing in front of her, grabbing onto her arms, and pulling her into his chest. Bailey couldn't believe that she didn't get the wind knocked out of her. There was a blur and a sudden, shocking, gut-wrenching stop.

She was pretty sure she had been screaming the whole time.

"We're here," Tapeworm said.

"Good," Bailey replied.

Tapeworm slowly let her down to her feet. Once she was standing, Bailey could feel her whole body shaking. She walked over to the bushes that sat in front of the State House, leaned over and promptly threw up. Her body felt horrible. How could the others stand doing that for so long? Tapeworm chuckled at Bailey's plight before she regained her composure and walked back over to him.

"It's not that funny," she muttered, walking by him.

The two went around the side of the building, looking for a way in that wouldn't be too obvious. Bailey was partially surprised that there wasn't anyone guarding the outside of the place. But they probably didn't expect a lot of people to try and break in, either. She felt Tapeworm nudge her arm and walked over to him. He pointed up and she tilted her head back and looked up towards the top of the building. Tapeworm then held his hand out, and his hands glowed green. Vines appeared, coming out of his wrists. When it got long enough, he moved his right arm up and moved it back and then forward, like he was throwing something. The vine reached the done at the top of the building and wrapped around the point. Tapeworm then used the other vine to wrap around Bailey's waist.

"Ursa," Tapeworm whispered.

Tapeworm's guardian appeared at his side and Tapeworm climbed onto his back, pulling Bailey on behind him, making sure that she didn't fall off. With a slight nod of his head, Ursa started to climb the side of the building. Bailey looked down as he climbed; the higher they went the more of the city that she could see. The bright lights and the cars that passed by, it reminded her of when she was back in Kettlecorn and how much she wanted to go and travel the world. Then she got on the SS Tipton and met Zack and Cody. Honestly, part of her hated the fact that she met them; she wouldn't be in constant danger and would probably be off at college at that point, but a greater part of her was glad. It showed her that there was much more to the world than a small farming town that most people never heard of.

Once they reached the top of the building, Bailey went over to the edge and looked down. It seemed that no one had noticed their excursion to the top of the building. No alarms had gone off either, so that was good.

"Alright, now we just have to get in," Tapeworm said under his breath. "Of course with all little noise as possible."

"With us, that's impossible," Bailey reminded him. She went over to the glass that made up part of the sun roof and produced a gun from her pocket. She used the butt of the gun to knock out the glass. The two of them then waited for a few moments, waiting for a shout or a cry that let them know that they had been caught.

But nothing came.

"Ok, I think you can go, Master Tapeworm," Ursa said. In a bright flash, he turned into his small form. "It doesn't seem like anyone is up here right now."

"Got it," Tapeworm held his arms out and vines twisted their way to the floor below. "Bailey, you go first."

Bailey nodded and slid over to the hole. She carefully swung her leg over to the side, making sure no left over glass would stick her, and then used one hand to grab onto the vines. She tested it, making sure that Tapeworm could hold her weight, though she knew that she probably felt like a feather to his amount of power, and then leaned forward, wrapping her other hand around it. She swung her body forward onto the vines before carefully starting to lower herself the 100-feet to the ground. Once she touched the floor and held up her hand in a thumbs-up to Tapeworm, Ursa climbed onto Tapeworm's shoulder and he lowered the two of them carefully to the ground.

"That was too easy," Tapeworm muttered to himself. "Nothing's ever this easy for us." He shook his head as the sound of the cloaked figure in his dream came back to him. "_If you leave I will find you. If you die I will follow you. You're not going to get rid of me._"

Maybe being there, searching for the stone, could help him figure out the voice that he kept hearing. Maybe something will actually be explained enough for them to understand. Maybe things would finally get better for them.

Tapeworm nearly snorted out loud at the idea.

"Where do you think we should look first?" Bailey asked.

Her questioned was answered when they heard footsteps coming their way. Bailey and Tapeworm looked around for a place to hide. The room they were in was as open as they could see and there weren't many tables or desks that they could hide under or behind.

At the last second, they could hear the voices fading away, as if they had been passed by. Tapeworm and Bailey went after them as quietly as they could. They ducked back behind a corner when a man and a woman had walked into what looked like an office. The light was on and they could hear numerous voices inside. Bailey slowly crept forward and Tapeworm followed her, looking over their shoulder to be sure that they weren't going to be caught.

As soon as the two reached the door, they could hear the woman talking.

"I'm telling you, these people are freaks. There are wild animals that usually don't live around here running around Boston. And it might not only be Boston, word from Diamond is that they're all over the world."

"If that's the truth," a gruff voice responded. "How come we haven't seen any other than the ones that we're going after?"

"Because they're good at hiding things, these kids…their luck ran out. They can't seem to stay out of trouble."

"As soon as we find Nathan Reeves, then we can figure out the cause of all of this and contain it, before any more innocent people get hurt."

"Well, luck has it that Diamond was able to nab some of them, the two blondes and some others. The other ones got away. They're searching the facility now for some evidence that can be used against them."

Bailey's heart leapt into her throat. Behind her, she could hear Tapeworm stifle a gasp. She knew what the two of them were thinking. Their friends had been caught while they had gone off searching for Core. Bailey closed her eyes, resting her head against the wall. Geneva and Gattaca might have been able to help them if she hadn't left.

"_All things happen for a reason, Bailey,"_ their voices responded to her doubts.

Tapeworm grabbed onto Bailey's arm and pulled her back away from the door. They ducked down another corridor. After they were sure that they were alone, Tapeworm finally spoke. "Bailey, before you think it, none of this is our fault. We didn't know that they were going to be caught and they didn't know it either. You heard what they said, some of them got away."

"But Zack and Cody got caught," Bailey reminded him. "You know that's the worst thing that could have happened. They're the strongest ones; they're the ones that are going to be tested on first."

"You don't know that," Tapeworm said evenly. "They might be held away from the others for questioning, they don't have their powers right now, so there's no proof of anything."

"With the footage that they may have, it's just as bad," Bailey remarked, her hand swinging at her side. Tapeworm watched her movements, his eyes lowering to the gun that was still in her hand.

"Where'd you get that?" Tapeworm asked, pointing to the object.

_"Syd, I think it's time that we try your invention." Noah commented to his brother, holding out his hand. Sydney looked at him for a minute and then nodded before putting down Crystal's laptop and pulling a gun from his back pocket. He went to hand it to Patrick, but Noah grabbed it from him. "I think that if we're going to use your new Element Gun, its best if Patrick isn't the one to use it." He explained and then took a small step back. "Shield your eyes; we don't know if this is going to work." He warned and lifted the gun._

_After taking a deep breath, he fired it._

_There was a flash of blue light and the sound of something shattering._

"Sydney's element gun," Bailey explained quickly. "I figured that I was going to need some sort of protection if Geneva's and Gattaca's powers fail, or if you can't use yours." She shrugged. "I figured if it was enough to shatter an elemental barrier, what could it do to a human?"

"I just hope that you're never going to need it," Tapeworm said grimly.

* * *

_Wham!_

_Wham!_

_Wham!_

Cody's eyes opened slowly. He thought that the slamming sound was just the sound of his blood thumping in his head, but it was a lot closer than he expected. Cody rolled off of the bed that he was lying on and went over to the bars on his cell. He looked across from him and saw that Zack had heard the noise and was waking up as well. The two exchanged identical glances. Cody then went to the further part of his cell and pressed his face against it, trying to angle his head to that he could see what was going on.

From his vantage point, he could see a cell a bit further down. Every now and then, he could see something shoot out and strike the bars on the cell, some of them were already bent, letting him know that whatever it was had been at hit for a while. It wasn't until Cody felt the coldness of the room, in comparison to how warm it had been before, did he finally realize who it was.

"Crys, what are you doing?" he called.

The hammering sound stopped. "What does it look like?" she shot back. "I'm trying to get out of here." There was a lengthy pause. "Wherever _here_ is," she added quietly.

"Is anyone else with you?" Zack asked.

"Aaron's with me," Crystal replied. "I see Patrick sitting over there," there was a scraping sound, as if she moved to the other side of her cell. "I'm not sure about anyone else though. I don't know who got away and who didn't."

"Is Patrick awake?" Cody asked.

"He can sleep through anything," Aaron's little voice replied.

_Wham! Wham! Wham!_

The sound came I a rapid-fire succession, causing Cody to put his hands over his ears. Everything echoed down where they were. It made each sound of the bars being hit move through his body and rattle his teeth.

"Alright," Crystal said after a minute. "I think I got it now." There was a low cracking sound and then one more _wham_. Then there was the sound of metal clattering against the ground. Crystal then appeared in Zack's and Cody's view, shaking out her right hand, slush falling to the ground.

Aaron stood by her side, his hands out, as if he was trying to get a vision of the room in his head, through the stale air that moved around the room.

"You guys ok?" She asked.

"As good as we can be," Zack replied, his voice sounding hollow.

Crystal noticed and turned to him with a look of concern on her face, but Zack looked away from her. Cody could tell that he was still thinking about the man whose head that he had blown up. Cody couldn't stop thinking to it either. Or what Zack had said before. If their powers were coming back and they were that strong now…who knew what would happen if they lost control or if they got to the stone.

Core and Christian had warned them; whoever had the stone could go drunk with power. Cody used to believe that none of them would be the kind of people that would fall for that sort of thing. But he didn't know for sure anymore.

"Get us out of here," Cody said, lowering his voice, in case anyone was around them.

"Alright," Crystal held up her right hand; it glowed a bright blue as it slowly started to become encrusted in ice. "But it might take a while."

"Stop," Zack hissed. "The sound of you wailing on it may have alerted some people. Someone may be coming down here as we speak."

"But we don't k now how much time we have," Cody reminded him. "If there is anyone else around; like Noah or Sydney, we have to find them. We need to get out of here quick before we give them the chance to come."

Crystal pulled her fist back, getting ready.

"Don't," Zack continued. "They might be armed."

Crystal dropped her hand, frustrated. "Oh, will you guys just make up your minds, please?!" she snapped. She shielded her face as there was a sudden flash of bright, white light. When she lowered her arms, Zack, Cody, and Patrick were out of their cells, looking confused. "How'd you do that?" she asked.

"It wasn't me," Zack replied, shaking his head.

"None of our powers are associated with the color white," Cody replied.

"Dude," Patrick rubbed his eyes, his movement having waked him up, and turned to Aaron, who was quietly standing by Crystal's side. "I think it was Aaron." His youngest cousin turned to Patrick at the sound of his voice.

"But Aaron's not an elemental," Crystal protested.

"Stranger things have happened," Patrick replied. "I mean, take a look at Bailey."

"He's got a point," Zack reminded her.

"We don't have time to talk about this," Cody turned on his heel and started to walk off in a random direction. "We have to find the others and figure out where we are and we have to do it now."

* * *

**A/N: **Well, it took me forever to get this updated, but I'm glad I finally did. Crystal, Rhu, and I were talking and we had gotten more ideas for this story,_Anomaly, _and Rhu's future Suite Life fic so there's lots of good stuff to come.

I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	21. Glaciate!

CHAPTER TWENTY

* * *

Christian let out a grunt as he was forced into a chair. His eyes darted around the room, trying to see what was around him. He couldn't see anything, but he recognized the smell. Having been working in labs for most of his life, he recognized the smell of chemicals and sanitation so easily. But where they could have taken him? He wasn't sure.

Christian felt a hand on the back of his head, and then one by his mouth. He squeezed his eyes shut, already knowing what was going to happen. The hand moved to the tape that was placed over his mouth and then picked at the corner. After a firm grip was established, the tape was ripped off of his mouth, the loose skin of his lips getting torn off in the process.

Christian winced in pain, bringing his tongue over his lips, the split skin stung, but otherwise, he was ok. His arms were taped behind his back and his feet were bound together as well. His head hurt, so he knew that he had been clubbed when Wingz Corp was broken into. It wasn't that long after Core had left that things hit the fan. Part of him wondered if that was the point, maybe they had been watched the whole time, since they had left that grocery store that was a plant for them. Part of him hated himself that he didn't see it coming; there was no way that they could have known where WingzCorp was without being followed or traced somehow. That was Core's whole idea of making it.

But now Christian realized that everything was bigger than them. This wasn't only about the Elementals and darkness and whomever was trying to come to power. It was about those that were trying to figure out what they were and the moral ramifications of what was to come. Who's to say that terrible things weren't going to happen to innocent people? Being captured like this…Christian knew that the kids would do anything to make sure that they could get away.

He just hoped that it didn't get as far as it seemed like it was going to get.

To total chaos.

"Alright," A woman's voice reached his ears as a light came on. Christian squinted his eyes, trying to adjust to the sudden brightness. He was sitting at a desk that much he could see, and there was something in front of him. It was shaped like a teardrop, with a small circle on the inside. It wasn't glowing, like he had expected. "You're going to dissect this thing and tell us what it is!"

Christian grimaced as his arms were pulled tightly behind his back. There was a ripping sound and then his arms were free. He put them in front of him and rubbed at his wrists, trying to get the circulation back in his hands. He leaned forward and picked up the object, holding it in the palm of his hand. It looked like a regular gem, but it felt man-made. Like, if it was created out of some sort of bone.

"Well?" The woman's voice asked. "What is it?"

"I'm not sure," Christian replied after a moment. "I can't be sure what chemical compounds it's made up of. Not without-"

"Hey!" The woman suddenly barked. She wasn't speaking to him. It was at that moment that Christian realized that he wasn't alone. There was at least someone else with them, maybe two people. If the government had attacked them, they would be smart enough not to just bring two people to guard that one woman. "Do you have the stuff?"

"No," a voice replied quickly. Due to the way that the person suddenly spoke, Christian could tell that the person wasn't expected to be spoken to. "I-I-I have to go back and get it."

There was a tsk'ing sound and then the woman spoke again. "Take I-I-I and get the stuff." There was the sound of a door opening and then footsteps that left the room. "You better get comfortable Mr. Manning; you're not going anywhere until you tell us what this thing is made of."

* * *

"How do you think he was able to move us like that?" Zack asked, looking over at Aaron, as he walked quietly beside him. "He's not an un-awakened Elemental is he?"

"No," Crystal said shortly. "Dad and I've tested him before. He doesn't have a mark and he doesn't have any of them tell-tale signs in his DNA or anything." She let out an impatient sigh. "Can we talk about that later? Let's focus more on getting out of here."

Zack noticed the edge in her tone and didn't press her further. He knew that there was something that she wasn't telling them, but also knew that it wasn't the time and place to ask. It wasn't like he wasn't used to it, until things were 100% clear, secrets were kept all throughout their group; just in case they were putting any of them in any unnecessary danger based on a hunch. They were all close, but at times, it was the way they operated; if it had nothing to do with you, you didn't ask until everything was explained to you.

"So where do you think we are?" Patrick asked as he, Crystal, Zack, Cody, and Aaron turned down another hallway and continued walking. He tilted his head back to look at the ceiling. "I mean, I know we're underground, but where specifically do you think we are?"

"If I had to guess, I would say the State House," Cody replied.

Zack turned to him with an odd look; Cody was able to see him in the moonlight.

There was a pale light that illuminated the corridors from windows that had bars around them. They had been walking around cells for a while, sure that they were going in one direction, looking for an exit. So far they hadn't bumped into anyone, but that didn't mean that there wasn't anyone around. They could be monitored at any given moment. If they were able to be traced to the Tipton Hotel, to a random grocery store, and then to Wingz Corp, there had to be some sort of a bug, some sort of a Mole or a GPS somewhere.

"You really didn't pay that much attention in school did you?" Cody asked, sarcasm dripping from every word.

"Tell me something I don't know," Zack shot back, matching Cody's tone exactly.

"Everyone knows that the Massachusetts State House is the state capitol and house of government of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts," Cody said evenly, getting everyone's attention as they continued walking. "It's located in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Patrick asked, confused. "How do you know that's where we are?"

"It makes sense, Pat," Crystal spoke up. She stopped walking, looking deep in through. "The State House houses the Massachusetts General Court and the offices of the Governor of Massachusetts." She looked over at Cody for confirmation, and he nodded, urging her to continue. "It's a bit part of politics, and the government is what is coming after us…so instead of trying to transport all of us to DC at one time, they're holding us here, trying to bide some time, maybe get some answers out of us, before taking us over there."

"Correct," Cody agreed. "It's the only place that's close enough, but big enough, that they could take all of us."

"If all of us were caught," Patrick reminded him. "Last you said, Rhu was getting away, I was with Noah and Reihu and when smoke cleared the room…I don't know if they got caught." He shrugged. "I'm not sure about Sydney, Core, Bailey, Tapeworm, or Uncle Christian." He licked his lips. "Or any of the others," he added, speaking of the rest of the DragonGang, DarkLions, BlackWolves, or Spirit-X. "But they have the animal abilities that they were infused with, they probably got out." He gave a bitter laugh. "God, I wish I could use my powers."

"Trust me, you don't," Zack replied.

Aaron turned to Zack, his sightless eyes seeming to bore into him. "You got your powers back?" he demanded. "When did that happen? Did you get Blazen too?"

"No." Zack hesitated. "I sort of got my powers back," he replied. "I mean, I'm getting them back. Much stronger than before, I think. I was able to…blow up a guy's head without touch him."

"You mean, blow up, like it burst into flames?" Patrick asked.

"More like he cooked it from the inside out," Cody supplied. He turned to look at Crystal, whose eyebrows lowered. "We didn't say anything at first because we weren't sure if the people that attacked us were going to do anything about it. Like, stick him with some sort of injection when he got here."

"No, I getcha," Crystal quickly reassured him, turning away. "It's better that you didn't say anything."

Zack felt his anger bubbling lightly under his skin. He wanted to use his powers so badly, to be able to help in some way. But when they had started going, Cody told him, under no circumstances, were he able to use them. If they were stronger, as that had been evidenced before, he might not be able to control who he did and did not hit. He could probably create a volcano under their feet without meaning to. Zack was annoyed at first; he wasn't used to Cody taking over control of all of them, as he was the unappointed leader of all of them. But somewhere along the way, Cody had started to make decisions for them all and he hadn't noticed. He just went right along with what Cody said.

He wasn't used to that position, but he knew that Cody could do just as good a job as he could. _Besides, you were always saying that you never asked to be the leader and to make all of the decisions. Now you're not._

Zack sighed.

Crystal suddenly caught his attention as she stiffened; her eyes slowly moved around the walls around them. Cracked concrete encompassed them in the dungeon like setting. But she knew that she heard something. You couldn't be down there, where everything was quiet, and not hear even the smallest sound of a rock being kicked. Sound carried and with her powers, her heightened sense of hearing made her acutely aware of each of the guy's breathing. But that's not what she heard.

_Drice, you feel anything_? Crystal asked her guardian, telepathically.

_I don't feel any presence of darkness, _Dricer replied. _But that doesn't mean that something's not there. Keep your eyes peeled, Mistress._

_Of course._

All of a sudden, there was an eruption of gunfire. Patrick let out a curse and ducked to the floor as an area of concrete about his head burst, sending dust into the air. Zack dove to the ground, pushing Aaron with him, Cody falling down beside him. Crystal whipped around just in time to see a guard walking steadily towards her, a pistol in his hands. She froze for a moment, they couldn't get killed by guns, it was harder, but that didn't mean that the bullet wouldn't hurt.

"Crystal Freeze!" Crystal's hands glowed blue and she moved them in an arm, making a wall of ice that arc through the air. At the same time, the guard took another shot at her, smashing right through the ice and whizzing by her ear. She quickly dodged to the right, smashing into a wall as he fired another round of shots, quickly moving to re-load his gun.

She frowned, no matter how fast she moved he was probably trained to expect it. _It's the only explanation as to why he would be alone._ She turned around, giving herself leverage to push off of the wall, getting ready to attack him again. But a sharp pain in her shoulder caused her to jerk and take a step back. It felt as if she had just been punched in the shoulder.

She didn't have to look to know that she had been shot. The guard held up the gun again, this time taking aim towards her head. "Move again, freak, and that'll be the last move you make." He said, keeping his eyes on her.

She had to move fast if she didn't want her friends to get hurt. She was sure that he knew about their increased strength with their powers, if she shot her in the head, he would see that it wouldn't hurt her as much as a normal person. He would then probably go after her brother, cousin, and friends.

No, that wasn't an option.

Crystal gritted her teeth. She had never tried this attack before, in theory, it worked, but she wasn't sure how long it would take for her powers to get enough energy for it to be effective.

"Glaciate!" Crystal closed her eyes and allowed her body to glow a bright blue.

She moved her body in a few Chinese martial arts moves that she had studied over the years. As she did so, her powers created an icy wind that flowed from her body, mostly her fingers, and wafted through the air towards the guard. When it reached him, outwardly, it seemed like nothing was happening. But as she continued to do her attack, his breath started to fog and a patch of ice appeared underneath him. As she moved, he had been moving the gun with her, making sure that it was always trained on her, but now his movements were slowing down.

_She's freezing his blood_, Cody realized in shock.

When she was sure that the guard couldn't move as fast as he wanted, she dove back into a hallway, her friends following her. She wasn't sure how long that attack lasted, the air around them was humid, but it worked enough so that she had time to assess the damage.

Crystal held her back against the wall, her chest heaving up and down, her right hand over her wounded shoulder. She turned her head and looked back at Zack, Cody, Patrick, and Aaron, before turning her head back to the hallway. Sucking in a sharp breath, Crystal removed her hand from her shoulder and held it out. An icicle, as long and as sharp as a spear, appeared in her hand. She pushed herself off of the wall and darted forward. The guard shot at her; she dodged the bullet and brought her arm back. When she shoved it forward, she let go of the icicle, sending it down the hallway like a javelin until it stopped; having gone through the bottom left side of the guard's stomach.

As the guard screamed in pain and dropped the gun, moving his hand towards his wound, she ran forward and did a flying tackle, landing on the guy and knocking him to the ground. She pulled her arm back and it became covered in ice, before she started to hit him in the face once, causing him to scream again.

She heard Patrick call her name, but she tuned him out.

She was tired of being the victim, the one that had to defend herself. She was tired of living in fear and not being able to live her life happily. In all essence, her berserk button had been pushed. Everything that she had felt over the past couple of years since she awakened, everything that she had kept bottled up, erupted over her in an icy wave of rage.

Crystal wrapped her fingers around the guard's throat and squeezed, putting all of her strength and devastation into squeezing the guard's windpipe. She felt the pulse in the guard's neck and she squeezed. Crystal could feel the arteries and veins and tendons in the guard's neck. She could feel the way the blood hammered trying to reach the guard's brain. The way the muscles twitched. Crystal felt the guard's windpipe convulsing. His entire body was jerking now, a wild spasm, organs frantic for oxygen, nerves twitching as the guard's brain sent out frantic panic signals. Crystal's hands squeezed. Her fingers dug in, like she was trying to form fists and the guard's neck was just kind of in the way and if she just squeezed hard enough-

He would stop.

Crystal, breathing heavily, dropped her hands and got to her feet. She stared down at the guard, his lifeless eyes staring back at her. All of a sudden, Crystal felt all of the fight wash out of her and fatigue fall over her body as the shocking weight of guilt fell into her stomach. She stared, eyes wide, and the man that she had just killed. She raised her hands to her face, before turning her head. Zack, Cody, Patrick, and Aaron stared back at her. They had stood back and watched all because they were too shocked to move.

She was fighting back in defense, and it had cost a man his life.

"What have I done?" Crystal whispered, her hands going to her face.

"Crys," Cody took a step towards her. "This isn't your fault, you were defending yourself."

"But he's dead."

"He was trying to kill you," Cody continued, slowly walking towards her, his hands out. Zack, Patrick, and Aaron slowly followed after him. "You were doing what you instinctively did to make sure that the rest of us were safe."

"He's right," Patrick agreed, walking up to his cousin and grabbing onto her hand. He looked down at her. "You were protecting us, just like we said that we would always do if we were ever in this sort of predicament." Crystal looked back at him, nodding ever so slightly, looking dazed. "You did what you were supposed to do."

Aaron walked over and wrapped his arms around Crystal's waist in a hug. She slowly dropped to her knees before wrapping her arms around his shoulders, hugging him back, tightly. Patrick placed a hand on her shoulder, gently rubbing it comfortingly. Zack and Cody stood around them, wanting to give them some time to get through what had just happened.

Zack ran a hand through his hair. It was probably the most helpless he had felt in a while. He had his powers back, that should have made him feel powerful, but he couldn't use them because they were stronger than they had been before and Cody didn't want him accidentally blowing up someone's arm. He turned and punching his fist into the wall. Not hard enough that it broke any bones, but enough so that he would feel the pain from it for a long time. Cody looked over at him, gave him an empathetic look, but still didn't say anything.

His silence said it all.

* * *

**A/N: **Next chapter catches you up with some other characters. Chapters are back to long after this one.

Cheers,

-Riles


	22. It was decided

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

* * *

It was decided.

_They need to learn that they're not the ones that are in control. _The dark figure moved across the massive room, the full length of its clothes wafting behind it. The dark figure stood in the window and looked at the area before him. The forest was bright, the foliage a leafy green, and in the distance, it could see the snowy mountain tops one way and the volcano another way. The people below seemed to be living peacefully, but not for long.

_This wouldn't have to happen if they had done as they were told. _The figure turned and walked back across the room to another room. Inside was somewhat of a nook, there was a place where it could sit down to relax, and there were books all over the place. But instead of the words being in English or any other language that was known to humans, it was in different shapes, symbols, and squiggles, known only to hose that lived in the Element World.

The dark figure raised a hand and the book floated over to it, the pages turning as it did so. When it opened up on the page that the dark figure needed, it shown a bright light, moving through all of the colors of the rainbow. The dark figure looked through the book, and then pressed his hands against it, smiling as it glowed the same colors. The dark figure then took a step back and pressed his palms together, the book closing in the same manner.

The book fell to the dark with a loud thud.

The dark figure stepped over the book and then sat down on the bedding that had been set up. Much like the rest of the room, it was an ivory color, with green accents in the pillows and some markings on the wall. The dark figure sat down and closed its eyes, crossing its legs.

It had to prepare for the time to strike again.

But this time it wouldn't be screwed up.

* * *

**A/N: **Whoops, sorry guys, I had to do a quick interlude with the main villain behind the whole story, I figured that it was time for you all to get a glimpse of him/her/it. I can't say the gender of the thing yet, but I chose the specific pronouns 'it' rather than 'it' because it's easier to write/read, or it would give it away. I know, I'm so evil. :)

Cheers,

-Riles


	23. Maybe being on Earth is the problem

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

* * *

Maddie Fitzpatrick moved across the apartment, cleaning up the best she could. She didn't have a lot of time before she had to leave to get to work, but she still had to make sure that it was done. When she got back home, she then had to get dinner ready and she would rather not have to worry about cleaning it up later. She had just gathered some clothes that had been scattered about, when the phone rang. Maddie quickly dropped the clothes into an armchair and scurried over to the ringing phone.

She looked at the caller ID and saw that it was her boyfriend, before picking it up. "Hey Julius, what's up?" she asked.

"I need your help with something," Julius replied in a low murmur. Maddie could hear someone saying something in the background and then a shuffling sound before he got back on. "I don't have much time to talk though, so I need you to listen."

"Ok," Maddie nodded.

"Alright, you know how before they left my siblings and I tried to get into my Dad's office?" Julius asked. "I need your help getting in there. I don't know why, but I have a feeling that there's something really important in there that we need. We didn't get far enough to look last time, though."

"What makes you think that we're going to get further in there this time?" Maddie asked in credulously. "I mean, we don't even know how much time we have before the government here starts to go after us. You've seen what's happening in Boston and if it weren't for the fact that we know how strong and determined the others are, I'd think they were dead by now."

"Maddie, just trust me, I know that something is there."

Maddie hesitated. She had seen everything that he had when it came to being an elemental. But it was still hard to think that after everything the others had gone through before to get rid of Gattaca, that everything was falling apart again, that the end was never going to come. That they were never going to be completely in peace. But they weren't going t know for sure unless they tried.

"What have you got?" Maddie asked.

Julius explained to her everything that had happened the last time that Julius and his siblings had gone to the Institution that his father had worked at and tried to get in. They had gotten kicked out almost immediately, but he had a feeling that this time would be different. Maddie listened intently as Julius told her his plan. She agreed to meet him at the institution in about twenty minutes before she hung up and raced to her room.

She grabbed her watch off of the desk and studied it. "I don't know if this is going to work, but you never know with Elemental stuff."

She put the watch on her wrist and left the apartment.

Maddie grabbed the bus and rode down to the Institution. Julius was pacing back and forth in front of the building, looking at his watch every few seconds. When he saw Maddie coming towards him, he grabbed onto her arm and started to pull her towards the building.

"Ok, all I need you to do is-"

"Wait," Maddie planted her feet firmly on the ground. "What's the rush? Don't you think that we should try and think of every possibility to how this can go wrong? I mean, what if we need a backup plan?"

Julius ignored her and continued to try and pull on her arm. "Julius, what's going on? I know that you want to help your brothers and sisters and their friends, but I don't see-"

"Because my Mom and Dad asked me to take care of them in any way that I could think of," Julius replied, his gaze at the ground. "I can't explain it really, but…they came to me in a dream once and they told me that no matter how many times the darkness gets to them or they make bad decisions that I have to be there for them. We don't talk about it much, but I hope that they know that I would give my life for them, even if I have to fight them while they're under the influence of darkness. I know that they're ashamed of the things that they have done sometimes, but they're still my little brothers and sisters."

"I know what you mean," Maddie agreed. "I'd never tell him but I'd do anything for my booger of a brother, Liam. Or for any of the rest of my siblings."

"So, even if I get a little reckless, just help me, please." Julius finally turned to her.

"No problem," Maddie said with a smile and a determined nod.

* * *

"I don't think there's any place left in Boston that's a good place for us to hide," Riley said as she moved a curtain back into place and ducked down under a window. She snorted as she looked around. "Kind of ironic, seeing as we hid out here when we were first figuring out about Halo Syndicate."

Reihu made a sound in the back of his throat as he looked around the broken down warehouse. She was probably right when she said that it was the last place that they could go without anyone finding them. It was war about there and both sides were going to pull out all of the stops to be sure that their side was going to win.

_If this is what Core took me from my family for, he's got a sick sense of humor _Reihu thought as he stretched out his legs and sat down on the floor as well.

"He may have a sick mind but he's not that sick," Rhuben commented, practically reading his mind. Reihu jumped as she slowly slid up from the floor, her head and shoulders appearing first. She placed her hands on the floor and pulled herself out of the shadow the rest of the way before crouching down on the floor. "I saw it in your face," she sat down on the floor next to him and leaned into his side. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," she apologized.

"You didn't," Reihu denied quickly.

"Did you find anything out?" Riley asked, turning to her twin sister.

"No," Rhuben shook her head. "There were people swarming everywhere and I couldn't be in the shadows long enough to get a really good look." She shivered as a chill went through her body. Reihu put his arm around her shoulders. "All I saw was that on the news, they're showing more footage of Crystal and Dricer on the roof of the Tipton. They didn't get a good look at Crys, but a composite is going around so you and I should be so careful too."

"It's probably the only time that you guys hate that your mother and her mother were twins," Cindy commented, crossing her legs.

She, Noah, Caos, Shadow, Ruliyan, Tori, and Tora were in the warehouse with them. When WingzCorp had been attacked by the members of the government, Rhuben had quickly found Reihu, Riley, and Noah and while the three of them were starting to escape, they ran into the remaining members of WingzCorp (No one had seen Kuroko or Kagenui since Koto had died) and they all fled, not stopping until they reached the warehouse.

The members of WingzCorp had been in the furthest wing of the building and would have been caught if it wasn't for the fact that Noah had reminded them that they were there. They didn't have a lot of time and barely managed to get them out before the explosions had started behind them. When they had gotten outside, Rhuben had taken a hold of all of them and maneuvered her way through the darkness to get to the warehouse. Once everyone was inside, she then used her powers to pop back into Boston to see what was going on around there.

"They must be stepping up their patrols," Noah remarked, ignoring Cindy's dig. "I don't think it's ever been that hard for us to actually get somewhere before."

"Hey, I was working under pressure," Rhuben commented, rubbing her temples, closing her eyes. She could still feel the darkness knifing and ripping away at her senses, trying to take over. But she had dealt with it long enough to know how to make sure that things didn't go wrong. It wasn't until she got super pissed or stressed that she started to tap into that power and it took her over.

"Don't worry about it," Caos shook his head. "All of us are working under pressure, especially trying to figure out what's going on. We don't know what's happening or how much time we have left."

"We don't even know when we're going to get something else to eat, stupid," Tori snapped. Her head shot up as a scurrying sound surrounded them. Her dragon wings then sprang out from her shoulder blades and she darted into the corner of the room. "Dammit!" She cried, after a smacking sound was heard. "God, I wish we had some light in here."

"Don't need my element for that," Riley remarked as she stood up. She paused for a second before turning to Tora. "Do you mind circling the building real fast?" She asked. "Just need to check to see on one's around," she then gave a sarcastic smile as she held up the peace sign. "Scout's honor that I'll help ya if someone comes."

Tora looked over at her sister, who still seemed to be groping her way back over to the group and nodded before taking flight out of a window, being carefully to bring her arms to her sides so that she didn't get scratched by some rotting wood. The others watched as her shadow passed the building a couple of times around before she went back inside.

"All clear," she said.

"Cool," Riley got to her feet and walked over to a corner of the room.

Jumping up, she held out her hands and grabbed onto the end of a set of stairs that had been broken. Swinging herself up, she pulled herself up onto the stairs and then walked around a railing and stopped when she reached a lantern that was sitting in the corner. _Good thing this is still here. _She pulled her lighter out of her pocket and flicked the lid open before igniting it. Her face was illuminated in the glow of the flame before she reached her hand forward and ignited the lantern. She then hung it up on a hook that descended from the ceiling, illuminating the warehouse around them. Riley then sat down on the floor and rested her legs on the railing, her feet swinging back and forth over the air beneath her.

"Home sweet home," she said with a dark edge to her tone.

"It wouldn't have to be our home if Core didn't force us to work for him," Shadow suddenly said. It gathered everyone's attention as he was the kind of guy that usually didn't say anything or questioned Core's orders, now he was speaking his mind. "If he didn't start in on this business in the first place, none of this would have happened."

"You don't know that for sure," Noah said evenly. "The fact that he found out about the Elementals in the first place…if he didn't find it then, he could have found it later. Either way, we don't know for sure."

"We never know anything for sure," Reihu pointed out.

"When are we going to?" Noah shrugged. "Life doesn't work that way, so I don't expect it to be easy for us. Half the time, I'm just expecting a bomb to blow up in my face so we can just get off this god awful planet and not have to worry about it anymore, but we don't have that luxury either."

"I didn't peg you to want to give up like that," Caos said slowly.

"Who said I was giving up?" Noah's eyes hardened. "Maybe being on Earth is the problem. Maybe we have to get to the Element world to get rid of whatever it is that we're supposed to be going against." His eyes studied everyone in the warehouse. "I don't think any of us have thought of that before."

"So what you're saying is that if we go the Elemental world and do…whatever it'll all go away?" Riley asked, now repeatedly opening and closing the lid to her lighter.

"It's just a thought," Noah said.

"It makes sense though," Rhuben brought her knees up to her chest. "Our problems start with the Element world…so it should end there too."

"And how do you propose that we get there?" Tori laughed obnoxiously. "Grow wings, fly, and hope that we don't fry from the sun's rays and lack of atmosphere before we get there?"

Rhuben's hands shook at her side, the urge to knock Tori out quickly getting the better of her. She didn't care that Core had dropped the bombshell that he was really trying to help her father by protecting her and her siblings. She could give a crap about that, she couldn't get over the feelings that she had against WingzCorp and the people in it that quickly. Koto and Reihu had quickly showed her and Riley that they were different in WingzCorp when they used to be a part of it, they, for the most part, never took their assignments too seriously. Then Riley and Rhuben had left with their brothers and their guardians, but the other members of WingzCorp had never forgiven them. Even the times where Koto and Reihu would come back to attack them, trying to capture them (before they knew that Core had been doing it on purpose to try and keep them safe) she could tell that they weren't fighting to their full potential. But now…it was getting to her again, everything that they had gone through before as well as how much she hated wondering if she was going to be attacked at school or at home…it was starting to get to her.

Everything was starting to get to them.

Reihu reached over and grabbed onto her hand, holding it steady in his larger one. Rhuben looked at him out of the corner of his eye and he looked back at her, giving her a small smile, resembling the young-carefree kid that he had been so long ago. Even the things that he had gone through had started to get to him and he seemed to be the kid that never stopped smiling. As sad as it was, at some point, he stopped.

"Whatever," Riley pulled her legs back from the edge of the railing. "We should all get some sleep."

"Wait a minute," Ruliyan snarled, his sharp canines gleaming in the dim light. "We don't have to listen to yo-"

"I _said _go to sleep!" Riley snapped. She raised her lighter to her face and blew out the flame with a single puff of air.

* * *

"So let me get this straight," Sydney said as he slowly kicked his feet back and forth on the bed that he was sitting on.

Unlike his friends and family, when he had been captured, he wasn't thrown in a cell or had been chased out of the building, he was put into, what any of them could say, the lap of luxury. It wasn't like he was in a hotel suite, but compared to how they had been living in the past, the small room with the bed and his own private bathroom was just fine. The only thing that he wasn't so sure about was the two grown men that were wearing army fatigues that were standing over him. He didn't see any guns in their hands, but he knew that it had to be hidden somewhere.

"You want me to help you guys develop your weapon further?" Sydney's right eyebrow rose in disbelief.

He hoped that the front that he was putting on was believable; he was scared out his mind. At the moment, he could see that they wanted his help to make their weapons stronger to use against him. Why in his right mind would he do that? He would be making weapons better that would hurt his friends and family. In some sick way, it was sort of funny.

"Yes, that's exactly what we want you to do," The man on the right said patiently.

"And what makes you think that I'm the one that you need to do it?" Sydney continued to ask, trying to stall for time so he could think.

"We know about you," the man on the right replied. "We know that you're very smart."

"So are Bailey and Cody and Crystal, why didn't you take them?"

"Because they're not certified geniuses, you are," the man on the left insisted. "And we know that the technology that we have…it'll be a piece of cake for you."

"And once again, I ask, what makes you think that I'm the one that you need to do it?" Sydney crossed his arms over his chest. "What makes you think that I'll just go ahead and betray my friends to help you?"

The man on the right then said something under his breath, Sydney couldn't hear him clearly, but he was sure that he had said 'what makes you think that we're not on the same side'? Sydney frowned, not sure if he had been hearing things. It would be a whole new spin on things if the man had been telling the truth, but on the other hand…why would they all be captured like this if, for the most part, none of them were any threat to them at all. They didn't have their powers; they were basically as useless as babies.

"We can ensure that your friends get out safely if you help us," the man on the left moved closer to Sydney. "We can let you all go and act like this never happened."

Sydney stayed silent as he looked away. The man was lying, he could tell by the fact that before he spoke he would always looked to the right; that was a dead giveaway. It didn't help that the man always paused before he spoke, as if trying to find the right words to say so Sydney could believe him. But Sydney had been taught how to lie and learned how to get better at it as time went on.

But…this opportunity could be used to his advantage.

"What if I refuse?" Sydney asked, lowering his voice so that he sounded more like a ten-year-old. It would disarm them, he was sure. "What if I don't want to help you?"

"Then we can't ensure your safety," the man on the left replied. "We can't ensure your life...and we know how precious that is to all of you."

Sydney chewed on his lower lip, continuing to put up the scared front. He was going to do his best to trick them, to try and let them think that he was slowly becoming more and more scared and overwhelmed as the seconds passed.

"I don't want anyone else to get hurt," he whimpered.

"We don't want anyone else to get hurt either," the man on the left agreed. The man on the right studied Sydney carefully, but seemed to believe everything that he was saying.

Perfect.

"Ok," Sydney sniffed loudly. "I-I'll help you."

He turned away under the pretense of wiping his nose, his blue eyes suddenly glowing a brighter shade of blue. _And while I'm helping you, I'll be helping myself._

* * *

**A/N: **You'll see more of Julius and Maddie in the next chapter; I just needed to have them come up again. Also, from now on until everyone gets back together, you're going to see a little bit of everyone in each chapter. More battles start again in the next chapter as well.

Cheers,

-Riles


	24. What could be more powerful than that?

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

* * *

Core finally made it to the airport. He knew that he wasn't going to be able to get out of Boston easily. He was sure that he had tabs on him for as long as he had been around WingzCorp. That was why he didn't go to the airport right away. He knew that he was being followed too; he could always tell whenever someone was following him so it didn't surprise him that Bailey and Tapeworm were there. He was slightly surprised that it wasn't Zack and Cody, but he knew that there had to be an explanation for it.

Core looked down at his hands as he waited for his flight to be called. He needed to go to DC to see what he could do to fix everything that was going on. It was his fault in the first place, if he hadn't hacked into their system and stumbled upon the elementals they wouldn't be in this predicament. He wouldn't be the man that he was, some of his best friends wouldn't have been murdered, and everyone else that he came into contact with wouldn't be constantly hunted down.

He rested his chin in his hand and thought hard about what he was going to do. Essentially, he was going to give up his freedom. A couple of years ago, he would have never thought about doing something like this. But now he knew that it was what he needed to do. He just hoped that he wouldn't regret it later.

_"Flight 8318 to Washington, DC is now boarding."_

Core got to his feet, his ticket held tightly in his right hand. He moved to stand in line with the other passengers that were getting on the flight. The only thing that made him stand out from the other people in line was that he didn't have any bags. He didn't need any because he wasn't sure if he was going to go back.

* * *

"So, have you figured out what this is yet?"

Christian resisted the urge to roll his eyes before sitting up straight. His back screamed in pain as he moved it into an upright position. He had been working all night long and his limbs were starting to rebel against him. He rubbed his neck, waiting for the woman to move to his side. She had been watching him like a hawk since he had been put in that room, constantly asking him whether or not he had finished with his studies.

They had brought him a microscope, tweezers, a magnifying glass, a Bunsen burner, beakers, water, Petrie dishes, everything that he could possibly use to figure out what the gem had been made out of. It had taken about five different experiments that failed before he finally got the answers that they were looking for. He had never seen anything like it before and he had seen so many strange things were the elementals were concerned since he had first found out about it.

"I _might _have figured out what it is," Christian said slowly, grimacing as the woman moved the head of the lamp so the light shone directly into Christian's face. "I didn't have all of the necessary equipment to figure out what it is in its entirety, but I can give you a guess as to what the compounds are."

"Alright, what is it then?" the woman asked, leaning closer to Christian.

"It's a plant," Christian replied calmly. "It's made up of dirt, leaves, stems, flower petals and it's all compounded into this one…thing."

"But where did it come from?" The woman lowered her voice. "We have searched everywhere and there is nothing like this that has ever been created on this planet. We would know it. And we know that you have something to do with this."

"I don't have a thing to do with this," Christian denied.

"You're involved," the woman continued to speak. "And we know that you've been involved for years. We have it tracked, everything that you've done since these instances started, you've been there. So why don't you just go ahead and tell us what we want to know."

Christian stayed silent.

Mentally, he wondered if there was actually a lot that they knew. It was possible; they probably had the means to know whenever their systems were being hacked into. It was even more of a possibility that they had been tracked over the years so they could be brought to this moment right here and now. Halo Syndicate did the same thing, they followed Core everywhere before they were revealed that it was just Gattaca using human bodies as vessels to try and spread darkness to earth as well as try to further complicate the balance between the element world and earth.

But there was still the possibility.

They should have been more careful.

The woman seemed to notice the panic in Christian's silence for she grinned. It was like a smile that a little kid would have when he saw all of his cake, ice cream, and presents on his birthday. She had something. Christian started to turn around when he heard the door to the room open, but he cried out in pain when the woman grabbed his hair and forced him back around.

"You should have just told me what I wanted to know in the first place," The woman said. "Get him out of here."

Christian's arms were forced behind his back once more and a rag was pulled over his eyes and knotted behind his head. He was then forced out of his chair and he was led out of the room.

* * *

"Ok, so what's your plan?" Maddie asked as Julius walked up to her.

"Shh!" He reached out a hand and slapped it over her mouth, making sure that anyone that passed couldn't hear their conversation. "Ok, to get in, that's going to be easy. But as soon as we get to his office and try to find what we're looking for, that's going to be the problem."

"What are we looking for exactly?" Maddie asked, her brows lowering. "I don't think you've ever told me about that."

"We're looking for clues to know where the Element Stones are," Julius explained quickly. "As with just about any other artifact that can be tired to the element world, it can be used for good or evil depending on what you need it for. There are a few of them, I don't know how many there are, but it will be beneficial if we find them."

"And you think that you can find it where your father worked?" Maddie looked skeptical.

"Our thought is that since my father was so respected here, that the people wouldn't have touched his office," Julius winced, knowing how they were going to be working on a slim chance of success. "As sort of like homage to him, like what some parents do if their kids are kidnapped or killed or something. We were thinking that I we can get to his computer, we can find whatever it is that we're looking for. Information on the stones, where we should be able to find them, that sort of thing."

"And you think that you can find it on his computer?" Maddie asked, her eyes widening. "Even if it's there, which, frankly, would be stupid; it's probably in an encrypted file or there's a password blocking it or something."

"And that's where you come in," Julius replied.

Maddie put her face in her hands and shook her head. Talk about pressure. She was smart, she was really good with a computer, but this was really something that was for Cody. He could probably hack his way into the most locked up computer in five minutes. But he wasn't there when she needed him.

"Is it sad when I say that I would rather have my powers back than to do this?" she asked lamely.

Julius smiled and kissed her forehead. "Trust me, Mads, you can do this." He reached out and grabbed onto her hand, dragging her inside the institution. He went over to the front desk and started to talk to the receptionist. She looked around at the windows that decorated most of the building. She could see scientists and technicians walking around, talking to each other or walking with their heads bent.

If there were that many people around, how were they going to be able to get on Reed's computer and look for what they were looking for without getting caught?

"Got the passes, let's go," Julius slapped a plastic, laminated pass into her hand.

"I still think that this is going to be harder than we think," Maddie said as the two turned and started to walk towards the elevator that Julius pointed out.

"It always is," Julius replied.

The two of them suddenly stopped walking as a familiar sensation entered their bodies. They were getting their powers back, they could feel themselves growing stronger as well as their senses become clearer. Julius suddenly stumbled back a few steps as something slammed into his chest. He looked down to see Rudin clutching his shirt with his paws.

Maddie stared, her mouth dropping open.

"Ruin-"Julius started.

"Quick," Maddie grabbed onto Julius's arm and pulled him into the elevator as fast as she could. "You don't want anyone to see him or else we'll be kicked out of here and we'd have to think of a different way to get to the computer."

"You're hurt," Julius stated, looking over his guardian. There was what looked like whip marks across his back. "What happened to you?"

"The Arboris," Rudin replied, looking up at his master, his green eyes glowing. "There's something new that's taking over the Element world…we really don't know what we're up against."

Julius sighed and looked up at Maddie. "We need to find as much information on these stones as we can and quick. Or else there might not be a world left to save."

Maddie nodded in agreement.

* * *

"Bailey, wake up," Tapeworm reached over and shook Bailey's shoulder. She woke up almost immediately, her eyes flashing open. "Relax," Tapeworm held up a hand. "No one's coming, but it's your turn to keep watch, you've been sleeping for a while."

"Oh," Bailey rubbed her eyes. "Thanks."

"No problem," Tapeworm moved away from the door and switched places with Bailey, lying down on top of the desk. Bailey took Tapeworm's place, sitting in the chair. She reached into her sweatshirt pocket and held onto it tightly.

The two of them had found an empty room that they were sure that no one had used. Tapeworm had gone to the other side of the State House and when he reported back, he announced that it seemed that the army was only using half of the State House for what they needed. The other half was completely empty. Tapeworm and Bailey had gone over there and found a place to use as a room as soon as possible. At that point they didn't care about where they slept; they would think that sleeping on the floor would be a luxury. So the office was good enough. There was plenty other rooms on their wing of the State House that Tapeworm was sure that they'd find a better place to sleep as well as find something to eat.

"How much longer until morning?" Bailey asked.

"Um," Tapeworm looked at his watch. Ursa appeared next to him in his small form, in a flash of green light, and curled up into a ball next to his master. "Not much longer, probably a couple of hours. I'm thinking that as soon as it's light out, we can try and find out what's really going on around here." He crossed his arms and rested his head on it.

"Right," Bailey agreed.

The one thing that they never really knew; what was going on. Tapeworm was snoring quietly in less than five minutes, the weight of everything tiring him out. Bailey studied the gun that she held in her palm. It looked like a regular pistol, but when she opened it to look at the bullets; there were different colored ones inside.

Red, Blue, Purple, Gray, White, and Black.

If she had to guess, it probably represented different elements in each bullet.

Bailey closed the chamber of the gun and put it back into the pocket of her sweatshirt. Bailey crossed her leg as she thought for a moment. She looked up as Geneva and Gattaca appeared in front of them, looking grim.

"What's going on?" She asked in a hushed voice, not wanting to wake up Tapeworm.

"We know even less than you," Geneva replied as she kneeled down on the floor, her brother doing the same. "Our connection to the Element World is limited when we're using you as our power source." She slowly blinked. "But we can feel that something is going to happen. Some of the guardians have come back so far, the others are coming now."

"Now?" Bailey's eyes pooped open. "What if they're taken over while they try to get back to the others?"

"That wasn't the idea," Gattaca shook his head. "If whatever is controlling them wanted to control them, it would have controlled all of the guardians as they tried to get back to their master. Whoever is behind it is trying to…test its manipulative ability."

"But what we can tell you is that this person…is a lot stronger than anyone that you have ever faced," Geneva continued. She nodded over to her brother. "You thought that Gattaca was strong, this person is even stronger."

"I know that you said that you don't have a good connection with the element world when you're helping me," Bailey said slowly. "But do you have any idea of what we're actually up against? Or why whatever it is…is-"

"Trying to take over?" Gattaca interrupted. "Power corrupts people, and whoever is behind all of this feels that the power that they had before isn't up to par compared to what it is now. What I can tell you is that this person may even be stronger than Geneva and I."

"But you guys hold the power of light and darkness, what could be more powerful than that?" Bailey asked. Geneva and Gattaca bowed their heads and disappeared in flashes of white and black, going back into Bailey's body.

Bailey closed her eyes and rocked her head back and forth.

* * *

"Crys, are you ok?" Zack asked.

"Would you stop asking me that?" Crystal snapped with a glare. It was the first time that she had spoken since she had killed that guard that had attacked them. Zack, Cody, Patrick, and Aaron tried to reassure her, saying that she was just acting in self defense. But she didn't listen; she had only walked along with them, looking at her feet. "There's really no way that I can answer that question. I don't know how to feel so you're constantly bringing it up isn't helping anybody!"

"Relax," Patrick chided, holding his hands up. "We're all getting bent out of shape for nothing. Yes, it's the stress, and yes we're stepping on each other's toes, but we have to think of the greater goal that we have going on here."

"What is the greater goal exactly?" Cody asked. He stopped waling and slid to the floor, drawing his knees up to his chest. "To defeat whomever is causing all of these problems? That's the most obvious answer. But what we're not asking ourselves is what next?"

"What do you mean little brother?" Zack asked, moving to sit next to Cody.

"I mean, what happens when we defeat whatever it is that we need to defeat?" Cody continued, moving his overgrown hair out of his face. "Do our powers go away again? And if so, do they finally go away for good? Is there another enemy out there that we have to defeat? Are we ever going to fully fulfill this prophecy?"

"We won't know until we try," Patrick reminded him.

"How much longer are we supposed to try? We're being attacked by our own government now. Our tapes are being shown out there. We're going to be ostracized once this whole this over. We can't go back to being normal."

"Well, let's face it," Zack snickered. "You were never really all that normal in the first place."

"Fuck off." Cody wrapped his arms around his knees and rested his chin on them, glaring at his feet.

"Instead of asking so many questions, why don't we just-"Patrick was immediately cut off when there was a shout and then a loud banging sound. He dove to the floor, immediately covering his head. Zack, Cody, Crystal, and Aaron did the same thing, immediately recognizing the sound as gunfire. "Spoke too soon," he muttered to himself as he lifted his head.

On both ends of the hallway were a couple of men, each of them were holding onto shotguns. The menacing way that they advanced on the teens let them know that their orders were simple. Get the kids back to their cells, you were able to harm them if you needed to.

"Alright, everyone get to their feet slowly," one of the men on the right said in a loud, commanding voice.

No one moved.

"I said, get up!" They still didn't move. The man that was commanding them to go quickly lost his patience. He brought the gun up and started to focus it. He put his finger on the trigger.

Blam!

There was a cry of pain.

Zack's head quickly whipped over to look at Cody, recognizing the sound of his cry. He expected to see Cody bleeding profusely. But he only saw his brother holding onto his shoulder as if he had just dislocated it, one eye scrunched up and breathing heavily. But he didn't see any blood at all. Zack then looked up to see Blazen and Phantom towering over the group, their wings spread out widely. The way that Phantom looked, Zack could see that he had taken the bullet wound to its wing. ThunderTatsu was hovering below the ceiling, slowly moving in a circle as he glared at the men that were harming their wards.

The man that had shot at them was reloading to shoot again. The others had lifted their guns as well.

Cody quickly noticed the moisture in the air and swung his arms wide. "Rain wave!" The humidity in the air immediately changed to water droplets that rushed towards the guards.

Crystal held up her hand. "Ice shard!" Half of the water droplets combined and froze into icicles, shooting forward and sticking into the guard's arms and legs. They cried out in pain before the hard rain water buffeted them as well.

"Thunder-"

"Don't!" Zack reached out and grabbed onto Patrick's arm. "If you do that, we'll be electrocuted." He closed his eyes, glowing a bright red, and the water evaporated. He sat up, ignoring the guards that were writing on the floor from their wounds. "How'd you guys get back here?"

"A gate opened that allowed us to pass through to get to you guys," Blazen turned to his small form and landed on Zack's shoulder. "Just like when you awakened the first time."

"What happened to you over there?" Cody asked Phantom in a plea for some answers. "What was keeping you from coming back, what would take you guys over if you could?" Phantom shook his head.

"We don't even know what it was," ThunderTatsu added. "We've never seen anything like it before."

Aaron got up and walked over to Blazen, gently cupping his hands around him. The area was then illuminated in a bright white light as he closed his eyes and continued to concentrate on him. When he opened his eyes, his irises were completely white as well. The light continued to glow brighter and brighter until it suddenly went out.

"Arboris," he said as he lowered his hands. "They're not exactly human…they seem to be plants too. Something is controlling the plants." He tilted his head to the side, looking confused. "I think there's also an Element Stone in their possession."

* * *

The darkness moved faster now, it had consumed enough souls to make it almost immortal, almost, a legend had arisen that there was one in all the world who had the will, although not the power, to destroy it; but no one could find who was the destined destroyer of the ever creeping darkness…

Rhuben gasped loudly as her eyes shot open; glowing a bright purple. Her body curved in on itself as pain wracked her body. She felt cold all over; she could feel a hand take control over her body, causing her to curl up even further. All around her, everyone woke up at the sudden commotion. Reihu kneeled by her side, brushing her hair from her face and calling her name over and over again, trying to get her to respond.

Riley jumped down from the rafters of the warehouse and hurried over to her sister's side. As soon as she touched her, a small shock of purple electricity shot out and hit her hand. "Shit!" Riley waved her hand, backing up a few paces.

"What's going on?" Tora asked as the others gathered around her.

"I think she's getting a message," Reihu said quietly. All of a sudden, he stiffened and growled before jumping up and leaping forward; he flipped once in the air, turning into a lion as he landed on the ground.

"From what?" Caos looked over at Riley. "Has she gotten one of these before?"

"No," Riley shook her head. "It must be something from the Element world then," she said. Her eyebrows lowered. _It can't be Gattaca; he's been restored and is with Bailey now. So what can it be?_

All of a sudden she was knocked I the side and flew back a few feet from her sister. When she lifted her head, she spotted DalFang half crawling, half dragging himself in circles on the ground. Her elation of seeing her guardian quickly disappeared when she spotted the erratic way that he was behaving. Reihu leapt onto DalFang's back and nipped at his ear. Riley let out a small whimper of pain as her hand shot to her ear, feeling blood drip onto her fingers.

Rhuben stopped glowing purple and she slowly uncurled herself. The pain was still evident on her face and as he eyes returned to its normal color, the fear was evident in her eyes as well. "There's a warning," she said in a low whisper.

"What?" Shadow leaned towards her, trying to hear.

"A warning," Rhuben repeated. "The prophecy isn't going to come true. We're fighting a useless battle." She closed her eyes again and a wave of energy knocked those of WingzCorp away from her. DeathLiger then appeared at her side and used his nose to gently roll her onto her hands and knees. Rhuben squeezed her eyes shut as she breathed heavily. "God, it hurts so bad." She whimpered.

Noah moved to Rhuben's side and his arms glowed silver as he raised his hands off of the ground. Rhuben was then enveloped in wind as she was lifted off of the ground. He frowned in concentration as he tried to hold off the darkness powers the best that he could, given the circumstances.

Reihu was thrown off of DalFang's back; he landed on the ground and quickly jumped at DalFang again. This time, instead of aiming for his back, Reihu slammed into his stomach. DalFang made a loud wretching sound and shook his head. He flopped down onto his stomach and rolled around twice, before rolling onto his back. Reihu jumped forward and landed on DalFang's stomach again, before rolling to the side. DalFang coughed something out and it scattered along the floor, resting at Reihu's feet. Everyone looked at it for a moment, not wanting to believe that it was what they thought it was. That would be too revolting.

"It's a hand!" Tori cried.

Reihu bent down and gently sniffed it. He then picked it up in his jaws and tossed it over to Riley, who was breathing heavily, holding onto her stomach. She held it in her hand, grimacing, before taking a closer look at it. She tilted the hand back and forth before looking at the area where the hand would be connected with the arm. Her eyebrows rose as she reached in and pulled something out.

"It's not a human hand unless humans' arteries are actually vines," she said, pulling it out to its full length. "I think it was being controlled by something."

"Or someone," Noah added. He gently lowered his sister to the floor, seeing that she had started to calm down. "It's probably the same person that was using Rhu to deliver the message," he frowned as he cracked his knuckles. "If that's the case, then we're definitely underestimating what we're up against."

* * *

**A/N: **Hmm, I'm not sure if I'm going to stick with a little bit of everyone, it makes it seem like the story is going much slower than it was before. Anyway, I hope you guys liked the chapter.

Cheers,

-Riles


	25. A look into the past III

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

* * *

Everything is quiet, too quiet. There are no sounds across the front quad, no sounds of classmates talking and laughing to each other, and no sounds of music being played anywhere. There were no sounds at all. Everyone was asleep. All that is left is the Earth. Clouds are still here and so are the trees and oceans.

The wind rustles the trees causing them to sway back and forth. All except one, which stood rooted to the ground, staying put and standing tall and proud. He refuses to move at all. His roots go even deeper into the ground causing it to crack and break apart. The wind blows hard again rushing past the trees moving them to and fro, all except one.

Eric Trethaway stood at the base of the tree, breathing heavily, his palms pressed against the rough bark. His nails dug into the bark as another wave of pain racked through his body. He clenched his teeth, the blood pounding through his head as he tried in vain not to let himself be taken over again. He knew it was no use, no matter how hard he fought the power took him over and he didn't know what happened until he heard the next day.

The last time he found out that he had attacked some of his students. Some of his brightest and best students. Now they could be brought to talk with the Dean…that was one less person that he wanted to deal with what was going on. What if they were in a meeting and he lost control? His secret would be out. He knew what would happen; he had seen it before. Shortly after he had been taken over, he started to study about it as much as he could. Every Elemental that he had come across had been taken in by the government and never heard from again; as far as they were concerned. The families asked about their missing family members and had been told nothing but lies about how their family member had gotten a job and moved somewhere else. Those that did come back, they weren't the same as they used to, and they never talked about their ordeal.

He didn't want that to happen to him. He believed that he could get through it on will alone.

"_If you leave I will find you."_

The voice again. It always came back when he was trying to get away. "Get out of my head," he said, tightening his grip on the tree, bark getting under his nails. He was squeezing so tightly that the skin ripped and started to bleed. "Leave me alone."

_ If you die I will follow you. You're not going to get rid of me._"

Eric let out a scream, his voice echoing over the front quad as he felt the familiar feeling of pain rack through his body. It was taking him over again. He could do nothing about it but let it do what it wanted and hoped that when he woke up the next morning that he didn't kill anyone. He had almost done it before; he didn't want to face that again.

He knew that it was useless.

He had to give it what it wanted. And now, it wanted to get rid of the four young adults that were starting to get too close to revealing its true identity.

* * *

**A/N: **I noticed that I was a little overdue with the 'a look into the past' chapters since I wanted then evenly spaced from each other as the story goes on. So here's the third installment for it. Of course it doesn't answer many questions, but as I said before, they're short on purpose so you can see the slowly start to fill in the holes with the rest of the story in a past meets present sort of way.

I hope you guys liked it and I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	26. That's the million dollar question

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

* * *

"Run! Run!"

"Where are we running to, exactly?"

Bailey slowed down before skidding around a corner, knowing that if she didn't slow down her momentum, she would have crashed right into the wall. Tapeworm raced after her, looking over his shoulder to be sure if they were still being followed. He could hear the footsteps frantically running after them.

"Anywhere but here," Bailey replied, slowing down a little as they passed by a couple more rooms. Tapeworm, using his enhanced speed, checked each room, finding them locked, before he was running at Bailey's side again. "Something tells me that these people weren't happy that they found us in that room."

"Gee, I wonder why," Tapeworm replied sarcastically. "I mean we only broke into the place and have no clue where we're going. That and these people obviously want us for something, though I'm not sure what."

"When are we ever sure?" Bailey questioned.

"That's true," Tapeworm replied.

Bailey slowed down, trying to think of what to do. Her heart was thudding against her chest, sweat was pouring down her forehead, and for once in her life she didn't know what to do. They were being chased around the State House, which was bigger than she thought. If life was back to normal, she would have been so excited to be in there, looking at the structure and the architecture of the place. Now she was getting a grand tour at warp speed, not being able to stop or else they would be stuck.

_Think Bailey, think. You can't help your friends if you get caught._

"What are they even chasing us for?" Tapeworm asked. "I didn't know that anyone knew that we were in here."

"That's the point," Bailey replied, putting her hands on her knees. "They probably have hidden security cameras or just have people that are constantly scouting this place to see if we were in here." Her eyes suddenly widened. "They probably have the others too!" She started to lift her watch to her mouth, but then stopped, remembering that they didn't have their powers. "Shoot, we can't contact them."

"Maybe not, but it's probably not a good idea to-"

"Freeze!"

Tapeworm sighed, clearly annoyed. He turned back to the men that had their guns out, pointed towards the two of them. "I seriously should just do something rather than suggest it." He studied the two men in front of him and then made a face as he lowered his arms. "What am I doing?"

"Uh," Bailey looked at Tapeworm out of the corner of her eye, her arms up above her head. "Saving your own life?" She whispered out of the side of her mouth as the two men slowly walked towards them. "Put your hands back up!"

"Bullets can't hurt us," Tapeworm replied. "At least, not as badly as they would want. If anything, because of our enhanced powers, it'll probably just feel like a bug bite."

"Do you _really _want to test that theory?" Bailey asked, lowering her arms slightly.

"I said freeze!" The man on the left said, holding his gun tightly in his hands. He moved it back and forth from Bailey to Tapeworm. "Don't move and you won't get hurt." He looked at his partner before slowly moving towards the two teenagers. "We know why you're here."

_Doubt it. _Bailey kept her hands up above her head. How much could they possibly know? She and Tapeworm had gotten there a couple of days ago. For the most part, they had been staying in an empty room of the State House with no problems; they hadn't made enough noise for anyone to think that they were there.

"We're not going to hurt you as long as you decide to come with us," The man continued to speak, slowly taking a step towards them. "We know that you want the stone." Bailey and Tapeworm exchanges glances. "This is what you want," the man reached into his pocket and when he pulled his hand out, his hand was glowing a bright right. He turned his wrist over and opened his hand, revealing a red stone that glowed in his palm. His partner continued to watch and Bailey and Tapeworm. "We'll give it to you as long as you help us."

Bailey's eyes narrowed. _This has to be some sort of a trick._

_"It doesn't seem like a trick," _Geneva's voice said in Bailey's head.

_"This man seems sincere," _Gattaca added.

_Why would he just give us the stone then? _Bailey looked at Tapeworm again and he gave her a confused look in reply, which probably mimicked the expression that was on her own face. She was curious, but she was on edge as well.

"Why do you want us to help you?" Bailey asked, trying to call the man's bluff.

"Because we know what you are and we know that you can help save the world," the man continued. "You all don't know this, we aren't even supposed to tell you, but we're running out of time." He licked is lips and looked over at his partner, whose eyes were still on Bailey and Tapeworm. "We're not keeping you hostage to hurt you, we're keeping you hostage to help us. We know that the Earth is being attacked, we've seen it coming for years."

"Years?" Tapeworm took a step back. He stood up straight. "Tell us everything you know!"

"We can't tell you everything; we just need you to tell us that you'll help us," the man continued. "That's all that we can tell you so far. We can't say anything else, it's not the time. But we only have weeks at best before we don't have any time left and the world will be destroyed. _Please_!"

"All right," Tapeworm nodded over at Bailey and she lowered her arms. "What do you want us to do?"

Before the man could answer, his partner reacted, pointing his gun towards Bailey. It was more like the side of her head, but from her vantage point, he was pointing directly at her. Fearing that it was a trap, Bailey pulled the Element gun from her pocket and fired, not risking a chance to look at the bullets that were inside. Bailey and Tapeworm were thrown off of their feet as a rush of fire erupted from the gun and shot down the hall, enveloping the two men in seconds. A roar of hot wind blew back at the two of them, causing them to cover their faces with their arms.

All of a sudden, Bailey felt a bubble form around her head and she was pulled backwards by her arms. When the bubble disappeared, she looked up to see Cody standing above her, helping her to her feet. Crystal had grabbed onto Tapeworm and was doing the same.

"C'mon, we have to get out of here!" Zack called over the roar of the flames. His eyes were squinted against the bright glare of the flames.

"No!" Bailey cried, remembering that the men had a stone. "You have got back there," she said to Zack. "You have to get the stone!"

"What stone?" Zack shouted back.

"The dude, he had a gem," Tapeworm explained. "A stone or something. He was saying that it was one of the Element Stones. He said that they're trying to help us, not hurt us." At Zack's hesitation and Cody's incredulous look, Tapeworm shook his head. "It doesn't matter now what they said, we need to be sure that that stone is the real deal."

Zack turned to Cody, who thought quickly, biting his lower lip. Finally, he turned back to his older brother and nodded. "All right, go, quickly."

"Wait," Crystal reached out and grabbed onto Zack's arm. "Cody and I can try and put out the flames to be sure that you don't get hurt." She ignored Tapeworm's and Bailey's confused glances. "But you're still going to need to cover your mouth and node. It's not fire that kills people, its smoke." Zack nodded and pulled off his shirt, trying it around his mouth. "If you get too much smoke, your lungs will swell up, they'll fill with fluid."

"How much is too much?" he asked, his voice muffled by the cloth.

Crystal shrugged. "I don't know everything."

"Besides, your power makes it that, for the most part, you're able to whist and fire," Patrick reminded him. "So if you go in and out, you'll get the stone," he looked over at Bailey and Tapeworm. "Or whatever it really is and we can go before we bring more attention to ourselves." As soon as he finished, the sprinklers went off. Cody raised his hands and the water move around them as if there was an umbrella over their heads. "Spoke too soon."

"You always do," Zack replied, making sure that he had his shirt tied tightly around his mouth before disappearing.

"Wait," Tapeworm turned back to the others. "When did you guys get your powers back? Where your guardians taken over?"

"We don't know why we got them back," Cody said honestly. "All we know is what our guardians said. Apparently there are these things back in the Element world, called Arboris that are really strong that are attacking everyone there." He flicked his wet hair out of his face, looking troubled. "They tried to stop our guardian when they came back to us. So there really _is_ something out there that we have to stop."

"But stop from what?" Bailey asked, nearly in a whisper.

"That's the million dollar question, isn't it?" Cody said, raising an eyebrow. He nodded towards the flames. "What was going on with them?"

"Apparently," Bailey paused for a moment, knowing how crazy what she was about to say was. "The government didn't take us to be tested on or anything. They want us to help them. My guess is that if what you said is correct, they probably know about the thing in the Element World and they want us to help get rid of it."

"But why?" Aaron piped up from next to Crystal. His eyes were trained on Bailey, Cody, and Tapeworm. "Why wouldn't they have come and try to help us before? What's so important about doing it now?"

"They said that time is running out now and if we don't do something soon, it'll be too late." Bailey said.

She looked down and noticed that she still had the Element gun in her hands. She stretched her arm out, her hand starting to shake. It wasn't an actual gun, not the ones that she was used to seeing on TV or in movies, but it still scared her. There was so much power in the gun that she had fired; she had probably just incinerated the two men that were just begging them for help. Who knew what kind of power the other bullets had.

Patrick must have noticed her discomfort because he reached out and took the gun, tucking it into the back of his pants.

"They might be talking about the balance between the two worlds," Cody said.

"Mm-mm," Crystal shook her head, her hand on her chin. "I don't think that's it. If it was the balance between the two worlds, then they wouldn't have jumped us and took us from WingzCorp." She placed her hands on her hips. "There had to be something else that they want us to help them with."

"But can we trust them?" Zack suddenly appeared at their sides. He coughed lightly, untying his shirt from his mouth, they were smoldering at the edges. "The guys' are dead. Smoke inhalation and I think being so close with so much heat…" he made a gesture with his hands and then shook his head. "But I did manage to get this," he reached into his pocket and opened his palm, holding out the gem that Bailey and Tapeworm had been shown.

The others moved in closer to see the gem up close. The stone neatly fit in the palm of Zack's hand and it twinkled, even in the dim lighting. The stone shone in every color of the rainbow, though it mostly showed a crimson red color. As Zack held onto it, the light seemed to get brighter and brighter, though it stayed the same intensity as Zack held onto it.

"Ok, so we have something." Tapeworm reached out and closed Zack's hand, causing the light to fade. He put Zack's hand back to his side. "We don't know for sure that it's an Element Stone and we won't be able to find out if these people keep attacking us." He turned to look back behind him as the fire started to burn itself out. "Someone's going to be here if the alarms went off and they were sent out here."

"We need to find a place to hide," Patrick agreed.

"Follow us," Bailey nudged Tapeworm on the shoulder. "We know a place that we can go. This place is big, but its big enough it'll take time for them to find us. And in that time, we might, finally, be able to get some answers".

* * *

Christian rolled onto his back on the bed that he was lying in. After being taken out of the room, when he was finished dissecting the little gem, he had been brought to that bedroom and locked in. At that moment he could care less that he was essentially a captive, the bed brought him sleep and after a long time of sleeping, he wore up to clarity. Christian knew exactly what the gem that he had dissected was, but he couldn't let them know it. It was just as he and Core had feared all those years ago. Reed hadn't put a lot of thought into it, thinking that it was just a bunch of people who were trying to capitalize on getting their things sold. Christian and Core had gone along with it after a while; it was preposterous what people were thinking.

But now, it looked like it was actually going to come soon. And if the kids didn't figure it out soon, no one would be able to stop what was coming.

* * *

**A/N: **Alright, the rest of the story starts here on out. And the chapters get longer as I've finally figured out how to get everything to come together, so the story is gonna end soon (not, like, in the next five chapters though) because it's not going to be as long as Mystic Melody.

I hope you guys liked it and I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	27. Shadow of Rage

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

* * *

There was a scream of complete agony before the body separated itself, the head bouncing and rolling one way and the body going another.

Noah recoiled. "You couldn't be a little less ruthless when doing that?" He asked Tora as she circled the air before landing on the ground. She shook out her hands, flecks of blood falling to the ground. She then shrugged as she turned to Noah.

"I didn't want to risk it," she replied.

"Come on," Reihu turned around, before shifting slightly, pushing Rhuben further up his back. "We're sitting ducks here, just like we were in the warehouse, we have to find some place to take shelter." He started to walk again going at a fast pace.

"I don't think we're going to have many places to go if they heard that," Riley remarked, walking next to Reihu. "You can't have someone scream like that and not come running to see what the sound was." She increased her pace. "That and the fact that they had found us in the warehouse in the first place…it means that there's probably not many places left that we can hide."

"Not unless we get out of the city," Rhuben remarked, her face pressed into Reihu's back. "Put me down, I can walk."

"We don't want to risk you passing out again," Reihu tightened his grip on her, using his claws to lightly press into her legs, warning her. "Especially not if that thing that took your over to give us the message does it again." He stopped when a military man with a gun stopped in front of them, holding up a gun that was pointed directly at their faces. "Or that happens."

As they watched, the man was surrounded by a black-purple orb and then the orb created energy, blasting the military man high into the air, before he crash landed on the ground with a sickening _crack_. Reihu slowly put Rhuben on the ground before taking a step away from her, in case she was going to do the same thing to him.

"Thank you," she said quietly. She then took a breath before she turned to Noah and Riley before looking at Tori, Tora, Caos, Shadow, and Reihu, to be sure that they knew that she was talking to them as well. "If another message comes in, I'll let you know. But in the mean time, it would be a good idea if we actually tried to figure out where the others are instead of running around like chickens, blowing up every person that gets in our path." She looked over at the man that she had killed, watching as his blood continued to stain the pavement. "There's only so much longer until we accidentally harm a civilian."

"What do you propose then?" Riley asked. Her eyes were moving around the clearing, waiting to see if someone else was going to jump out at them.

Rhuben's eyes twitched as she thought about her. "I think that we should try and see if we can contact the others, since we have our powers back now." She started to bring her watch to her mouth, but Noah reached out and grabbed onto her hand.

"Depend on where the others are," he said slowly. "If they haven't contacted us yet, or at least Tapeworm hasn't…what if they got captured?" His eyes were serious. "I know it's hard to figure out, especially since the watches don't work if the recipient's powers aren't up to par, how do we know that they haven't tracked the watch or anything." He shrugged. "To figure out where we are by voice waves or something?"

"Is there anything else that you could possibly use to contact them?" Caos scratched his nose. "I mean, you guys have all of the fancy gadgets and everything, why can't you just whip up some sort of an aircraft with GPS capabilities and fly us there."

"Gee, maybe because we left all of our spare parts at home," Riley shot back, using her own sarcasm.

"Why don't you use DeathLiger?" Shadow suggested. Everyone turned to look at him and he looked straight at Rhuben. "You've got the power of darkness don't ya? So does DeathLiger. Can't he sense where some is? Maybe he can find your brothers using that capability?"

Rhuben hesitated.

"It might be too dangerous," Reihu warned her.

"It'll be fine," Rhuben said firmly. She turned her head to the side as a bright flash of light caused DeathLiger to appear on her shoulder in small form. "Can you tell us where Pat and Syd are?" She asked. "I wouldn't want you to get hurt, but at this point in the game, we're desperate."

"I'll try my hardest, my mistress," DeathLiger replied before closing his eyes, bathing himself and Rhuben in a light purple glow. The others watched as Rhuben's face screwed up in pain and she clenched her teeth together, trying hard not to let out a sound. DeathLiger's eyes shut even tighter and then they snapped open glowing completely purple.

"Patrick is with Zack, Cody, Tapeworm, Aaron, and Crystal," Rhuben said after a second of silence. "Syd…he's somewhere by himself." Her eyebrows moved into one of confusion, though her eyes were still closed. "I don't know what he's doing or if he's in trouble, but he's by himself. Though…he doesn't seem to be stressed at all, so I can only assume that he's fine."

Her shoulders slumped as DeathLiger stopped glowing and she breathed heavily, waiting to get her strength back.

"Good, now we just have to figure out where-"Tori bit back the end of her sentence as she jumped backwards. There was a zipping sound and the concrete in front of her erupted into a small circle. Frowning, she bent down and touched the spot. It was warm to the touch. Upon closer inspection, she found that it was a bullet hole.

"Don't move," Noah said quietly, holding still. "There are men all around us, and they all have guns pointed our way." His eyes shifted as he looked around. "And I think they have target identification guns, or else Tori's head would have been blasted open."

"What should we do?" Tora whispered.

No one dared to move. No one even dared to breathe. They didn't know what it was like to be hit by bullets. They didn't know how impervious they were to them. It could feel like a bug bite, or it could feel like fire was consuming them. All they knew was that if they got a hit in the head, elemental or not, they would be out cold for the rest of their lives. Any sudden movements would cause the bullets to come ripping through their flesh at any second, so they had to handle this delicately.

"Ok," Riley talked so slowly it was like her lips weren't even moving. "If you can fly or if you have a guardian that can fly, we're going to be the ones to get us out of here. We're going to have to go by air."

"Why by air?" Caos demanded. "We can all run fast, why don't we try that?"

"Because if they're with the government and they've been following us for years, they probably have the technology to make bullets that can get us as fast as we can run and pin-point in exact locations," Noah explained. "If we go by air, the trajectory of the bullet is only so far and gravity will pull them back down, harming those that are aiming for us more than us."

"Exactly," Riley agreed. "So, what we're going to do is, Rhu and I will try to distract the guys that are aiming at us the best that we can." She slowly moved her eyes around the plaza.

They were boxed in by buildings on all sides, so there were many places that these people could be hiding. She gave a mental sigh. This was going to be harder than she thought. Even if they zigzagged out of the way, they were still in such an enclosed space that they could hit each other, or get caught by a stray bullet they didn't normally see coming. This was going to either succeed with careful planning or throwing caution to the wind.

"Everyone else grab someone that's can't fly and get as high into the air as possible," Riley continued. "We'll take the guys out, so we can be sure we're not being followed, and then we'll figure out where to go from there." Her upper lip curled as her hands clenched into fists. "Got it?"

"Got it," Noah replied. His wings slowly unfolded from his back along with Tori's and Tora's. The leathery wings gently fluttered in the wind, adjusting so that they could find the thermals that they needed to use to take off at the right time.

"Ok," Riley continued to look around, her eyesight enhanced by her wolf capabilities as well as the fact that it was nighttime. "I see the main guy, he has a walkie-talkie," she slowly tilted her head to the side as she rolled her shoulders. "He's right behind Rhu and is the one giving the orders. I'm gonna go after him first."

"I can see the second in command," Rhuben commented, her eyes behind right behind Riley. "I'll go after him."

"Do you want us to take out the others or just get up as high as possible?" Tori asked, her fingers twitching at her sides. It was obvious that the tactics that Core had ingrained into their brains wasn't going to go away anytime soon.

"All right, on three," Riley insisted. DalFang appeared on her shoulder. "1…2…3!"

At the count of three, Tori, Tora, and Noah lurched forward and grabbed onto Caos, Shadow, and Reihu before they took off into the air, rising as fast as 200 mph. The down stroke of their wings along with how fast they rose caused a gust of wind to blow through the plaza. They could hear screams and blasts of glass breaking as they soared up, before hearing the sound of gunfire. At the same time, Riley and Rhuben had leapt high into the air as their guardians transformed into their full forms beneath them. Riley landed on DalFang's back and he swung to the side, out of the path of some bullets.

"Dark Fire Soldier!" Riley called. Her eyes turned to a dark, crimson red and a glow of the same color surrounded her and DalFang. She moved her arms up over her head and when she swung them back down, the aura around them erupted and sent dark fire into the buildings. One of the buildings immediately caught on fire, sending acrid smoke into the sky. As the flames raged, the shape of the flames turned the building into what looked like a burning man.

"Dark Tornado!" Rhuben glowed purple, allowing the aura to cover DeathLiger. He lifted his wings and then swung them down. The powerful stroke caused a large tornado of dark energy to go blasting towards the building that was opposite of the one that Riley was attacking.

Bullets continued to rain down around them and the guardians swung back and forth, doing their best to avoid them. The building had blown apart, but it was still standing. She could see that some of the marksmen had been killed, but the one that she had been aiming for was still alive. He turned and pointed the gun straight at her.

"Shit," she muttered under her breath. If it really was a tracking gun, there wasn't much of a chance for them to get completely out of the way. Plus, there was the fact that he was part of the government, he was trained not to miss too many times.

"Burning Mane." DeathLiger's mane turned into dark flames and as he roared loudly, it shot across the plaza, illuminating the other side, and was sent right into the window that the marksmen was leaning out of. Rhuben watched as the building imploded, knowing out the rest of the windows. Her guilt rose slightly when the building started to rumble before it collapsed to the ground, sending dust everywhere.

"Fear Fang!"

Rhuben and DeathLiger turned around to see DalFang's attack rip into the side of the building that the commander was in. The building was still standing up, two were on fire, and one had collapsed. She could hear sirens in the distance. Things could easily get worse if they got caught.

Riley's and Rhuben's hands glowed red and purple as they brought their arms up over their heads. A large black ball appeared above them and it started to get bigger and bigger as the outside ring slowly radiated a reddish color, pulsing as if it had its own heartbeat. The twin sisters brought their arms down and the ball went shooting towards Leslie at such a high speed it collided with her before she could even think to stop.

"We might want to hurry this up and get to the others," DeathLiger said as he moved to his brother's side.

"No problem," Riley tightened her grip on DalFang's fur.

"Shadow of Rage!" She and Rhuben called.

The commander screamed as a ball of black-red-purple pulsating energy zoomed towards him and expanded over his head. Once it settled around it glowed a bright purple before sliding into a black color, seeming to strike him with the energy of darkness as it did so. Then it burst into flames, causing the commander's screams to increase. He thrashed around, trying to put out the flames.

"Come on," Riley said in a low voice, her eyes still on the dying man. "There's nothing left for him." Nudging her knees into DalFang's sides, she leaned to the right, telling him to move. DalFang and DeathLiger turned and flew up into the air to greet their waiting companions.

* * *

"Even if we don't know what we're going up against, I'm letting you all know that we're not going to back down until one side have finally won," Zack said to himself, looking at the stone that was in his hand. He looked up to be sure that everyone was still asleep, hoping that he wouldn't wake them up. "And the time has finally come for that final battle." He let out a weary sigh.

"We should get some sleep before we decide what to do next," Blazen said from where he was sitting on Zack's lap.

"Sure thing, buddy." Zack looked down at the stone that was in his hands.

His eyes flashed red…

* * *

**A/N: **I wanted to bring in a little bit of humor and normalcy before everything basically turns to crap as the final battle gets closer. I hope you guys liked it and I'll update again soon. Also, now that I'm done with my BTR fics (except for the co-write I'm doing with Rhu and the occasional one-shots) Out of Doubt will be updated Monday and Thursday starting next week. I'm really getting into this story now.

Cheers,

-Riles


	28. Mother Nature

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

* * *

Sydney yawned and rubbed his eyes.

He had been working for the better of three days at that point and he wasn't sure if he was doing what the people that were holding him captive wanted. The only good thing about it was the fact that he was able to listen in on random conversations to see what was going on. It also helped that SpiritSaru was around to keep him from going insane though with his brain that would take a while.

He looked over the weapons that were in front of him. ID trackers, rocket launchers, blueprints for missiles, if it weren't for the fact that each of those weapons didn't have their ammunition along with them, Sydney would be afraid to even think about how he was making them even better. On the other hand, he was essentially worried about who the weapons were supposed to be used for. It couldn't be them or else they wouldn't be held captive at that point, so was there something else that they knew that was coming?

_Of course they do, _Sydney busied himself with a soldering iron. _The government wouldn't be the government if they weren't trying to keep us all from freaking out over what they really know._

_"Your government runs like that?" _SpiritSaru's voice filled Sydney's head.

_Yes. _Sydney squinted his eyes shut as he looked over the conjoined joint that he made. _The government and the president is what holds the power over the US, it's the Prime Minister in Australia. Why? Do you have something like that?_

_"No." _Sydney pictured SpiritSaru shaking his head. _"We just followed the lead of Geneva and Gattaca. Since they controlled Light and Darkness, they were the ones that essentially ruled the Element World. The only difference was that the only time that they really stepped in to make decisions was when a war would start to break out or power was starting to shift."_

_How could you tell if power was shifting? _Sydney slowly lowered his solder iron.

_"The drums. There would be a specific song that the drums would make and we would all know that something was going on. Under Geneva and Gattaca, there were those that were appointed to signaling if there was something going o that they had to report to. The people were switched out all the time. When we were back there…before we came to you guys, we heard them a lot"_

Sydney slowly lifted his head, pushing his dark hair out of his face as he thought hard. SpiritSaru had said that they would be acknowledged if something was going wrong. But he then said that the same thing happened when he and the guardians were still back there, and that was when Geneva and Gattaca had already gone back to Bailey.

Sydney's mouth dropped open.

That meant that there was someone or something else that was using its power over the Element world. Someone or something that the others didn't know about….but what?

He wracked his brain as hard as he could to come up with the answer, but came up with nothing. For the first time in his life, he had been completely stumped. "SpiritSaru," he spoke out loud, causing his guardian to appear in front of him. "Can you show me anything that I need to know about?"

"I'll do my best," SpiritSaru replied. "I can't guarantee that you'll find whatever you're looking for." SpiritSaru moved his paws and tail at the same time, swishing them back and forth. As he did so, the room filled with a blue mist. The mist then formed into the shapes of him and his friends before they started to act our different scenarios and conversations that they have had over the years as their battle with Core, WingzCorp, and Halo Syndicate had gone on.

Sydney sat on his bed; his legs crossed, and held his chin in his knees as he watched years of different events fly by.

His eyebrows rose when SpiritSaru reached one from when Zhane was hell-bent on getting to Bailey:

_"Whatever," Koto took out a cigarette and lit it up, blowing smoke rings into the air. "You guys are always talking, never doing. That's what makes us so different." He tilted his head down again, looking serious, his green eyes flashing. "If you would actually believe me, you would know that what WingzCorp has been doing this whole time as been trying to help you."_

_"Explain" Rhuben commanded._

_"I can't disclose all the details-"_

_"When can you?" Crystal interrupted._

_"But like I was saying before, we know that Halo Syndicate is up to something, we don't know exactly, but there's a way that they're going to destroy everybody in the world. Humans and Elementals alike, only they will be the ones that survive and they're going to start their own 'elemental race' when they're done. What we know is that in a year and a half this is going to happen."_

_"You mean in 2012?" Bailey asked, wrinkling her nose._

_"That's the idea, they-"_

"Stop!" Sydney cried, throwing his hands up into the air. "Stop there." SpiritSaru froze the image and Sydney looked at it intently, running everything over his head. His eyes then widened and he waved a hand, allowing SpiritSaru to take away the image. "2012….2012…" he repeated.

"Did you think of something?" SpiritSaru asked, noticing the stricken expression on Sydney's face.

"There's this thing that people think that the government was behind that caused massive panic," Sydney explained quickly. "No one knows if it'll really happen, but considering everything that's been going on, I think it really will." He licked his lips. "On December 21st, 2012, it is speculated that the world is going to end. I mean, catastrophically end. If the Element world is linked into that then I think I know what's going on. The government _knows_ that the world is going to end on that day and they know it's going to be because of an Elemental reason and since you said that there's something going on back in the Element World than it's obvious that there's something else that's there that's causing all of this. And I know of only one thing that can control light and darkness along with every other element you can think of."

"What's that?" SpiritSaru asked.

"Mother Nature," Sydney replied grimly. He turned back to the tools and equipment that was on his desk. "And if I'm right, which I hope I'm not, we're going to need more than this to stop her."

* * *

Tapeworm twitched in his sleep, he could hear a voice calling him through his dreams, like it had happened before. He could tell that it was Max, but he wasn't sure if it was going to help them figure out anything else that they needed to know.

"Tape…wake up," Max called. Tapeworm opened his eyes and spotted Max standing by his bed. She was leaning over so that his hair was tickling his face. Max smiled as she stood up straight, twisting her hair into the braided pig-tails that she was used to. "Nice to see you finally awake, sleepy head." She teased.

"What's going on?" Tapeworm looked over the room, the others were fast asleep. He briefly wondered if he was the only one that she was in communication with.

"Of course," Max looked offended. "The only other person that could see me is Sydney, considering his element is Spirits, but I'm not sure if he's managed to tap into the fact that I've been around. He's seemed sort of busy lately."

"Have you been with us since you…" Tapeworm trailed off.

"Of course," Max said with a nod. "I've been with you guys since me and Koto died and since the guardians went back to the Element World three months ago." She shook her head. "I didn't expect things to get this bad, but they might become worse if we don't try to stall things ourselves first."

"Wait a minute," Tapeworm stood up and towered over his significantly shorter girlfriend. "Does that mean that you know who's the one that's behind everything?" He reached out to grip onto her shoulders and gasped when his hands moved right through her. "Wha-?"

"Oops," Max gave a silly smile. "I forgot to make sure that I focused my energy enough so you wouldn't freak out." Her smile faded before she nodded. "But, yes, I know what's going on with everything. I couldn't tell you before, but I can now. You're not going to believe me when I do."

"I don't doubt you," Tapeworm agreed. He frowned. Would that voice come back to haunt him again? He wondered if that voice was what was the big villain that they were fighting against this whole time? It wouldn't be the first time that something like that had happened. There was always something that they didn't seem coming that came back to bite them in the ass later, so he was equipped to guess what it was.

"All right," Max reached out and took Tapeworm's hands. "Hold still."

Once again, he felt exhausted. His lids fell, he tried, in vain, to keep them open, but he couldn't help it. He had to close his eyes. When he opened them again, Max was standing in front of him and they were back in the Element World. He could hear the drums that he head the last time that they were there. Ursa appeared at his side.

"Those drums are a warning," Max said, answering his unasked question. "They are used when a battle is coming or when there's a balance shift in this world." She turned and looked hard at him. "There's been a balance shift for a long time." She paused and studied him. "Do you know what they call the name of the drums?"

"A Mystic Melody," Ursa said.

Max nodded.

_Mystic Melody, huh? _Tapeworm continued to listen to the drums. "You said that there was an imbalance of power?" He thought for a moment. "If they were playing since I was here last, then this has been going on for a while."

Max nodded again.

"And if Gattaca and Geneva are with Bailey….then there's something else that we didn't know about that's the real source of power over the Element World." Tapeworm looked down at his guardian. "It must have been the same person that has been taking control of our guardians when they were coming back to us." He added. Ursa let out a low growl in his throat, thinking back to the time that he had attacked Tapeworm and Bailey at his house.

"By the way," Max moved up to Tapeworm's side and glared up at him. "I hope that nothing's going on between you and Bailey." She said sharply. "Because even though I'm dead, I'm still able to-"

"Relax," Tapeworm gave a small smile. "Bailey's with Cody, nothing can tear them apart, they're perfect."

Max shook her head. "Nothing's perfect," she said quietly. "Especially love. Those that seem the most perfect together usually aren't the ones that end up together." She shook her head. "The same can be said about what's going on here. There's the perfect solution to everything, but it doesn't end up being the complete answer."

"We always assume that it's the darkness that's the one behind everything," Tapeworm said slowly. "But maybe it's not…maybe it's something else that controls the darkness." He watched Max as she slowly smiled, indicating that he was on the right path. "Maybe there's something else that's been there the whole time that we didn't think of."

Max sighed and reached out, taking Tapeworm's hand in hers, holding onto it tightly. Tapeworm allowed her to lead him through the forest, Ursa was walking at their side, turning his head this way and that, watching to see if they were about to be ambushed. As they continued through the wooded area, Tapeworm could hear a low rumbling. He looked up to see dark clouds rolling in.

"Uh-oh, it looks like rain," he said worriedly.

"Mhm," Max said, dismissively, looking off into the distance. She sighed, a sigh of resolute peace.

One by one, cool drops of water fell upon their skin. As the rain and hit the ground, it steamed up around them, creating a haunting, beautiful fog. It came down harder and harder by the second.

"You know," Max said suddenly. "We've never kissed in the rain before."

Tapeworm studied her; just like any other time that he had seen her, she looked happy, but had an air of sadness in her eyes. She turned back to him and managed to smile, although her eyes didn't light up. Tapeworm placed his hand behind her neck, and he brought his head towards her. Their lips brushed tentatively, finally sinking into a kiss.

A passionate kiss.

A flash lit up the sky, and a crack of thunder echoed across the lake...it was now time to go. The wind picked up, the cool air biting at their skin.

"We should get going," Tapeworm said his arms suddenly filled with goosebumps. Max shook her head, standing still. "What's going on?" He asked her. Lighting flashed again and this time there was a loud rumbling sound. He looked around, surprised to see that even more steam was being created about them. Ursa's growling increased and he turned to his full size.

"Something is coming this way," he said.

Tapeworm took a step back, his hands glowing green.

"She wanted to meet you, to give you a message," Max said in a dull tone.

Tapeworm watched as a shadow appeared in the fog, getting bigger as it moved closer to them. As it got closer, he could make out the shape of a human. He gasped when she finally stepped into the light. She was wearing the same sort of outfit that Geneva and Gattaca did, but it looked even more extravagant. She had a large crown on her head that looked to be made out of stripped and polished bark. The bright green gem that sat in the middle of the crown gleamed even though there was poor light source. She looked at Tapeworm with a calm expression, though he could sense the power that she held inside.

"Mother Nature," Ursa gasped. "I thought she was a myth."

"I'm as real as they come," Mother Nature said with a warm smile. Behind her, humans walked out of the shadows. "I'm sure that my arbori showed you that I can easily take control of what I want." Her green eyes flashed.

_Bailey opened her eyes and held her hands out palms out. Her hands started to glow a light gray color and as she held them out, little wisps of energy flowed off of her hands, twisting and twirling through the air as they headed over towards Ursa. As the two watched the wisps of energy collected into a ball and landed on Ursa's forehead as he pulled back from the wall once more, getting ready to hit his head against it. The wisps stayed on his forehead for a second and then lifted off, up into the air, something glowing inside of it. As the wisps continued to hover in the air, whatever was glowing broke apart and crumbled into dust that fell to the carpet._

_Ursa let out a little whine as he slumped onto his stomach, closing his eyes. In two quick flashes, he turned into his human form and then turned into his small form._

_Tapeworm quickly glowed green before hurrying over to his guardian, picking him up into his arms. "Ursa." He whispered. "Are you ok?"_

_"I didn't mean it, Master Tapeworm," Ursa whispered back, his eyes opening slowly. "Something was taking me over."_

_"It's alright, it wasn't your fault." Tapeworm replied with a small smile._

"You're the one that took him over!" Tapeworm cried, his eyes widening. "And the others too, you're the one that was trying to keep them from coming back to us." His hands clenched into fists and they glowed a brighter green. Mother Nature seemed the least bit distressed. "Why?"

"This has been planned for years," Mother Nature said in a deliberately slow voice. "Nothing's going to stand in my way now, not those that I'm supposed to have control over." Her smiled dropped, her calm exterior cracking. "That's why they all had to come back. I couldn't have them ruin my plans. There's not much time left…"

Tapeworm clenched his teeth together. Everything was answered for him now, who they were going against, what had been taking the guardians over. This was who they were trying to defeat over the past six or seven years. All of those other things were just pawns that got in the way and distracted them from the big event. Part of him wanted to congratulate her having lied in wait to utilize her powers when she needed it, but the other part was beyond pissed. They had seen families get torn apart and people die all for something that they didn't have to worry about. If they had known that this was going to happen, then maybe the Jacksons' parents, Crystal's mother, Max, and Koto wouldn't have died. Then maybe WingzCorp wouldn't have been made. Then maybe Halo Syndicate wouldn't have happened. Then maybe Mother Nature wouldn't have sat back and watched as Gattaca used his powers for evil.

"My son and daughter had done all that they needed to do to keep peace around the Element World," Mother Nature continued. "But they didn't know that there are some things that you can't anticipate." She shook her head. "You can't stop me, no one can."

"What about the Stones?" Tapeworm asked. "They can give us more increased power."

"Even if you could get all of the stones in your possession, you still won't be able to defeat me," Mother Nature said, sounding disappointed. "There will be too much doubt and fear that will course through your veins. The prophecy won't come true."

"You don't know that," Tapeworm spat. He moved his arms in a circle and the trees around him uprooted themselves and were thrown towards Mother Nature.

Mother Nature raised a hand, glowing green, and the trees disintegrated before they even touched her. Tapeworm watched in shock before he felt himself get lifted off of his feet and was thrown to the ground. Ursa hurried over to his master. He hesitated, not sure if he should attack Mother Nature. He had seen her power and didn't think that he would stand an iota of a chance against her.

"Oh, but I do," Mother Nature confirmed. "You might as well sit back and wait for the end, it's coming soon. You're not going to be able to stop me." She then narrowed her eyes while she looked hard at him. He could hear her voice in his head, though her lips didn't move. "_If you leave I will find you. If you die I will follow you. You're not going to get rid of me._"

Tapeworm gasped.

* * *

Tapeworm gasped and his eyes shot open. He sat up, knocking Cody off of his side, jostling him awake. He looked around the room to see that everyone else was still asleep; Patrick and Aaron were leaning against Crystal's side as they slept, Bailey was leaning on Cody, who had been leaning on Tapeworm, and Zack had been in another corner of the room, he had fallen asleep with his arm extended, his hand clenched tight.

"What?" Cody was alarmed. "What's going on?"

"Shh," Tapeworm shushed him. "Don't wake everyone else up, not yet. I need to think." He put his hands into his bushy hair, willing everything to come back to him. It was a flash of information; it gave him a headache almost immediately.

"Tape, what'd you dream about?" Cody asked, immediately sensing what was wrong. "You know that dreams are really important with us, what was it?"

"If my dream is of any indication," Tapeworm looked at his watch, looking specifically at the date. "We don't have much time left…only about a week and a half tops. By those means…we're in trouble."

* * *

**A/N: **I purposefully didn't tell you guys that the reveal of the antagonist of the story was going to be so soon, because I wanted to keep it a surprise. I had looked at something I mentioned back in Mystic Melody and decided to make it the plot point for this story in a unique way. Did any of you guys guess it before I said anything?

I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	29. Here it goes

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

* * *

"Mother Nature?" Bailey repeated. "You mean…like the myth that's the personification of nature that focuses on the life-giving and nurturing aspects of nature by embodying it in the form of the mother?" Her eyes widened when Tapeworm nodded.

"And you couldn't just directly ask that?" Zack asked his upper lip curling.

"Sorry Zack, not everything can be put in terms such as 'She is evil'," Crystal replied, causing Cody to start laughing. Zack merely shook his head, putting his hands into the pockets of his pants. "And, yes, Bailey, I assume that's what he means."

"So Mother Nature is Geneva's and Gattaca's mother?" Aaron asked, his eyebrows rising. "To be perfectly honest, I'm not surprised. Because it seems that whenever there's something that we always thought we knew, it ends up being wrong." He let out a breath. "Plus, it makes sense that she would be the rules of the whole Element World, considering we've never seen it."

"Can you get Geneva and Gattaca out here?" Cody asked, turning to Bailey, his hand on his chin. "I think that we need to talk to them about this."

Bailey nodded. She closed her eyes and concentrated hard. She found it was easier and easier to get their attention now and was happy about that. But she was also scared about what was going to happen when everything ended. She knew that there was a chance that she was going to lost them, just like the others had when they had momentarily lost their elements a couple of months back. She forced herself no to think about it too much, or else it would just depress her even more or remind her that they really did only have about a week left until they figured out what was going to happen.

"Did you guys know about your…mother being the ruler of the Element world?" Cody asked, diplomatically as soon as the brother and sister appeared in front of them.

"We were aware of that," Geneva said slowly. "But not in the way that you think. While we controlled only a small portion of an area in the Element World, our mother controlled the whole world." She shook her head. "But we didn't know that this was going to be coming."

"How could anyone have known that it was coming?" Tapeworm asked his arms over his chest. "The fact that I've only seen what's going on twice, it doesn't help much." He roughly shook his head. "And I've never actually seen _her _until yesterday."

"But our guardians said that she was starting to attack the villages there," Patrick pointed out. "Especially with Blazen's and Phantom's mother being attacked. I don't think there's much left for them if this is going to happen in the next week."

"Guys," Crystal said slowly. "We need to find those stones." She thought for a moment. "And the only way I can see that happening is if we agree to stop being hostages and actually act like we know what we're doing." She frowned, twisting her mouth to the side. "We need to agree to help these people."

"Technically we're not agreeing to anything, since we know, now, that we're on the same side," Aaron pointed out.

Bailey sighed, allowing Geneva and Gattaca to go back into her body. They had been chased around with guns and had been threatened for days. They didn't know where Core was, they didn't know where Christian was, they didn't know where Sydney was, they didn't know where the other group was or if they were alive. At this point, it seemed like they had no options but to roll over and let Mother Nature do what they wanted.

She looked over at Zack and noticed him fidgeting.

"Zack," She said suddenly, her eyes flying wide open. Zack jumped, startled. "You have the stone, right?" She asked him.

"Yeah…" he slowly pulled it out of his pocket. His eyes flashed red for a moment before he opened his palm and they returned to its blue color. Bailey moved close to it, her eyes scanning it for a moment. "What's up?"

"You know how Sydney used the Anima Energy Nano Particles to help the use of our watches and how he explained that it's why we have, like, a GPS whenever we can tell that someone whether an ally or not, is getting closer?" Bailey asked, speaking rapidly. She didn't wait for an answer before she continued. "If the Element Stones use the same idea, maybe we can find the other stones with this one!"

There was a moment of stunned silence. It was brilliant. No, it was nothing short of genius. The idea that everything that anyone had ever used come together like that was so simplistic it actually made them feel a little stupid. Everything that they had encountered over the years told them that they shouldn't take the first, quick answer that they could have been given.

"That's a good idea," Aaron said, turning to Crystal. "If our father was able to create the healing serum from elemental DNA, which I'm sure used the same particles, and then it could probably do this too."

"But we also don't know if it's going to blow up in our faces," Patrick reminded them. "Like, literally, we don't know if it's a fake."

"Or if it'll lead us in anymore trouble," Tapeworm added. "We've been running and hiding and fighting so much lately, we haven't gotten any sleep." He looked troubled. "It's only so long that we have until we completely run out of energy and when that happens, we could easily be knocked out."

"What do you think?" Zack turned to Cody with a questioning look in his eyes.

Bailey looked over at him too.

Cody's thoughtful frown deepened. As usual, there was so much at stake. There were so many things unanswered, but now, at least for the moment, things were starting to become clear to them. The only way that they were going to defeat Mother Nature and save the world once and for all, was if they figured out where the stones were and how to sue their power. If they had that sort of power on their side, then they could do away with whatever got in their way.

Bailey watched as Cody continued to mull it over. She could see how tired he was, with everything. But she could also see the sense of responsibility in his face. They had had that conversation a long time before; back when they were on the SS Tipton. He wasn't going to let anyone else innocent get hurt. That was why it was so hard for him to watch his mother and father leave him and his brother. He didn't want them to get hurt, but the feeling of abandonment by a parent stung more than knowing that they could potentially die.

Cody finally nodded.

All of a sudden, Zack didn't feel confident with anything that the others were saying. It wasn't that he didn't believe that what they were saying was true. It was that all of them weren't there. He hated knowing that most of his friends were gone, maybe defenseless without their guardians, and he didn't know what was going to happen to them. Yes, most of Zack was thinking about Riley in that moment, but his other friends were just as important to him. Zack wanted to take her hand. He was scared. He needed someone to lend him some courage. He wanted to take her hand. But this wasn't the time.

So he managed a shaky smile, extended his arm, and said, "Here it goes."

* * *

**A/N: **Ok, if you guys haven't figured it out, the reason that Tapeworm is so important is because he has the power of nature. Also if you haven't figured out the connection, Mother Nature used him as a vessel to show that she was coming to them. How that intertwines with the adults, you'll see it in the next 'a look into the past' chapter. I needed a _tiny_ bit of CodyxCrystal and ZackxOC in here, and you'll see why as the story ends.

This chapter was very dialogue driven and probably one of my shortest ones, but it needed to be that way. I hope you guys liked it. I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	30. Author's Note

**Author's Note**

Ok, I feel so bad with what I'm feeling lately. I'm actually getting close to finishing up the story, but lately, I've had nothing but a overwhelming feeling of just leaving the story where it is. I don't know if it's because I'm aware that I'm close to finishing it and I just don't want to get there or because I don't really know how to tie everything up together. Part of it I know is because that I was aware that this story, at first, wasn't going to exist and that Mystic Melody was just going to be a standalone. But then I got the idea of this story from a dream as well as talking to Rhu and Crys about what could potentially be the reason behind everything. I was already planning on taking a break from FFN until mid-march when I was done with this story since, realistically, I haven't taken a writing break from this site since I joined. Now, I'm thinking of leaving this story where it is and coming back to it in March just so I don't feel like I'm wrecking a story just to finish it. So at this point I'm not sure if I'm gonna finish it at all or if I'm just going to come back to it later. We'll find out soon, I guess.

But that being said, no matter what I decide (and how potentially disappointed you all may be) I'm so thankful for all of your reviews, favorites, alerts, and support with this story and Mystic Melody as I've been writing it. It always makes me so happy to see that I could leave this fandom and come back and see that you guys are willing to take me in with open arms.

Cheers,

-Riles


	31. Sometimes everything just got to him

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

* * *

The sky was a beautiful orange color. The sun was setting behind the hill as well as the tall white building that sat in the foreground, letting go of one final burst of beauty before disappearing completely, allowing the crystal moon to take over the sky, backed up by diamond stars. He watched the exchange, he was there that long. He was able to see the sky turn completely dark and then watch as the stars popped out.

The wind blew a crying whisper, rustling his hair and playing a song in his ears. Core let out a determined breath as he walked towards the building. It had been a while. He hadn't been there in years and now this time, he wasn't sure if he was going to come back from it. But it was what needed to be done, just so the others…those kids had time to be able to do what they needed to do. It had been building up for a while. Everything inside just suddenly over whelmed him, making it so easy to take the pills. First three, then another, then another, and half an hour later four more, just for good measure. Now all that's left for him to do is go inside and do what needed to be done. His eyelids were getting heavier by the second, so he started to walk faster. He knew that as soon as he got into the vicinity of the building everything would go down. He would be recognized and there would be a scuffle and things would turn out the way he…._they_ needed them too.

It's been a hectic two years since his first attempts to end his suffering. He could turn the blame on his original studies way back when. If he hadn't researched, nothing like this would have happened and they could have all lived peaceful lives instead of causing pain and suffering everywhere they went. There were the nightmares, too. Of falling or bleeding, then waking up to find real blood on his hands, arms or legs. He remembered that he had gotten told by the doctor that he needed to make sure that his nails were consistently cut short. Apparently he clenched his hands into fists too many times and with too much force.

Sometimes everything just got to him.

Now is one of those times.

* * *

**A/N: **Yeah, I'm officially back and off of hiatus. Unfortunately, I had to make the chapter short so I could get back in the swing of things. But, I'll have it updated again soon, I really want to get to the ending of the story and show how everything ties together. But I had to do a little something with Core first.

I hope you guys liked it.

Cheers,

-Riles


	32. Attack anyone who comes through that doo

CHAPTER THIRTY

* * *

Zack's eyes immediately flashed to red as the stone glowed a very bright color. The others shielded their eyes as the light continued to shine brighter and brighter. As they watched, Zack started to let out sounds of pain, gritting his teeth, his fingertips tightening on the edges of the stone.

All of a sudden a wave of energy tore through the room, knocking everyone off their feet. Zack fell onto his side, losing his grip on the stone. He let out a few gasps of air, his eyes returning to its normal color.

"Are you crazy?" Zack rolled onto his back to see Julius and Maddie standing in the middle of the room. Julius lowered his arm, his hand, which was glowing a dark blue, was returning to normal. He then reached out and grabbed onto Zack's arm, lifting him to his feet. "You don't know what kind of power this stone has; you don't want to suddenly jump into using it."

"Julius!" Patrick hurried over to his eldest sibling and gave him a hug.

"How'd you guys get here?" Crystal moved over to Maddie and gave her a hug as well as the others crowded around to greet them. "Do you know what's been going on?" She took a step back, regarding the two of them. Their clothes were torn and they looked exhausted, even more so than the rest of them looked. "What happened?"

"Long story," Julius said. He looked around, his eyes narrowing. "Where's everyone else?"

"That's a long story, too." Cody scratched his neck. "The quickest way to say it, we found out Mother Nature is going to do something to earth in about a week's time, we have one element stone, we're trying to find the others, and the government were trying to find us for us to _help_ them." He thought for a moment. "I think that's just about everything."

"Just about," Bailey agreed.

Julius sighed loudly, running his hands over his face. Maddie moved across the room to sit down in a chair Aaron had offered her. Julius opted to slide down the wall until he was sitting on the floor. Cody conjured up a water bubble and handed it over to Julius, who levitated it up above his hands. Julius moved his head forward and took a sip of the water before turning it to ice and pressed it against his forehead.

"And to answer your first question…" Julius looked over at Crystal, regarding his cousin with a weary look. "I bent time and space to be able to get here."

"Must be good to know you can control all of the elements," Tapeworm remarked.

"You'd think." Julius shook his head. "No. If anything, it makes me weaker than you guys. I have to use so much power to be able to tap into one of them with so many to handle, it takes a lot out of me." He removed the ice from his face and held his hands out, spreading them apart. The ice dropped towards the floor and before it connected to the ground, it turned back into water.

Maddie rubbed at a bruise on her shoulder and then placed her hand, which was glowing pink, on it, causing it to heal. She let out a sigh as she rolled her shoulders. She sat up and stretched her back, wincing at a cracking sound and then lowered in a hunched over position, resting her forehead in her hands.

Zack's hand glowed red as he used his abilities to make his hand warm to the touch. He then pressed it to Maddie's back, the heat loosening her muscles.

They had been through all kind of horror, but somehow, even with her blouse filthy, her blonde hair hanging lank and greasy, her face smudged, she looked beautiful to him. All of the girls looked beautiful in their own way; it was as if he was just noticing them for the first time. As if everything that had happened was making things ten-thousand times clearer for him.

He looked over at the stone lying on the ground. He felt nothing but anger towards himself at that moment. He couldn't believe he allowed himself to be walked all over just because he was scared of what his powers could do to people now. He couldn't believe he allowed himself to back off from what he did best; making decisions and having plans work out. Not that he didn't trust Cody to make decisions when they needed one to be made, but they couldn't wait to look at all the facts anymore. They had to get ready for this upcoming battle and they had to get ready now.

"All right!" He turned from Maddie, clapping his hands together. "First thing we have to do is figure out where the others are. And I mean everyone, especially Christian and Sydney. If they were caught by these people, god knows they're using their smarts and experiences for something and we need to know what." He thought for a moment. "Julius and Maddie will stay here so they can get some rest." He pointed to himself. "Bailey, Tapeworm, and I will go and try and find someone we can talk to about their plan against Mother Nature. Cody, Patrick, and Crystal will go look for the stones. Aaron, you'll stay here with Maddie and Julius and watch over them."

His eyes shifted back and forth before he moved over to Aaron and leaned down so he was whispering in the younger boy's ear. "Only use your powers when if you necessarily have to. Attack anyone that comes in through the door, even if it's one of us."

Aaron nodded silently.

Cody went over to his brother and placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's good to have you back, buddy."

Zack smiled and nodded. "It's good to be back. I just lost my head there for a second."

"Well, let's be honest." Cody smiled. "You were never really _there_ for a long time."

"But thanks for stepping up." Zack turned back to the others. "Do you all understand what we're doing?" They nodded back. "Good, let's go. Keep your eyes and ears open for the others, if you find them, send them to Julius and Maddie so they can get some rest, too." He cracked his knuckles. "It's time we start getting some answers."

* * *

Sydney poked his head out of the door and then pulled back when he heard footsteps heading his way. He pressed his back against the door and waited for the soldiers to run by him. He then stuck his head out of his door once more, being careful not to accidentally press his face into the burning metal. He had used his powers to burn the lock off of the door, so he was able to get it open. The blueprints for the weapons were stuffed into his shorts pockets and all of the leftover materials the soldiers had given him had been hidden around the room.

He was tired of making weapons for them when he knew they would use them badly; it would be better if his friends and family used them. That way he would know his plans would be successful. He reached into the bag he had on his back and tugged on the fabric inside, making sure he remembered to pack it. On one of the many visits he had in the room, to get the weapons he made, taken away to be mass produced, he asked for some fabric and a backpack. He was genuinely surprised to see they had given it to him, but chalked it up to doing a good job with the weapons they asked for.

Now he just had to get back to the others and he could show them what he had made.

Sydney listened for a long moment before he fully pulled himself out of his room and into the hallway. From what he could tell, something was happening so everyone was being dispatched to certain parts of the building, waiting for more orders. That's all he could understand from the hushes voices that went by his room. He hadn't been checked on in hours, so it was the best time to make his escape. Even with his powers and his guardian back, he still felt completely vulnerable. They soldiers could come back and attack him for trying to leave or it would be someone who hadn't seen him before and immediately started to shoot. Either way, it wouldn't end well.

Sydney hitched the backpack up his back and started to run down the long hallway, his footsteps echoing over the ground. He continued to run, not going up to his maximum ability, only because he had no idea where he was going. His breathing became ragged as he continued to run, occasionally looking over his shoulder to see if he was being followed. He slowed down to a walk when he went out to an open area. Gasping for air, he looked around and realized he was in the main hall of the State House, the first place you would see when you went inside the building.

A shadow moved across the floor and he looked above him to see something circling the giant dome that encompassed the top of the building. "Unfading Promise," he whispered, his staff appearing in his hand.

Sydney backed up into the shadows, holding his staff out in front of him as more shadows appeared above the dome. He flinched and pressed himself against the wall as there was a loud crashing down and glass rained down onto the floor. He watched, breathing out a sigh of relief when he spotted DeathLiger, DalFang, and SilverTatsu gently float to the floor, holding their masters and mistresses on their backs. Tori and Tora came next, holding onto Caos and Shadow, Reihu was on DeathLiger's back.

Sydney moved his staff in a circle, creating a large arc as he walked towards his brother and sisters, creating a dome around them. "Kazuki, Kazuaki." Two, white, snake-like creatures appeared beside him, floating in the air. "Make sure no one can see us." He then held up his staff. "Non envisibis."

Kazuki and Kazuaki floated around the dome Sydney created and glowed a bright blue, almost white, causing the dome to create the same shade as Sydney walked inside it. To anyone that passed by, they wouldn't see anything but broken glass in the main hall, but if they tried to walk through the dome, they would be unable to and be forced to move around it.

Sydney hurried into the dome and over to his brothers and sister. "Are you ok?" He asked before throwing his arms around Rhuben's waist in a hug. He frowned and took a step back. "Something happened," he noted. "I can feel it."

"We'll explain that later," Noah said. He reached out and gave his brother a hug before allowing Riley to get the chance. "Where's everyone else? They didn't answer when we tried to use our watches."

"Probably to make sure they didn't get caught," Sydney said. "Long story short, the government weren't trying to hurt us, they want us to _help _them. Something's going to happen in a couple of days in the Element World and here and Mother Nature is behind it all."

"She must be the one who sent me the message then," Rhuben said. She grimaced, a hand to her head, her arm around Reihu's upper back, holding her up. "She said the prophecy won't come true and there's no reason to try and stop her."

"That's fighting words if you ask me," Riley remarked. She let out a sigh before turning to Tori, Tora, Caos, and Shadow. She nodded at them and the four nodded to each other before the twin girls took the two boys by the arm and blasted back through the hole in the ceiling, quickly disappearing from sight.

"What's going on?" Sydney asked.

"They don't need to be stuck in this," Reihu shook his head. His hands clenched into fists. "We already lost Koto from this…his brother and cousin went into hiding. Those four never wanted to help Core…I don't want them to get sucked into this too." He shrugged, ending the conversation there.

Sydney nodded. He tightened his grip on his staff, twirling it in his hand. "The others are being held here somewhere, we all have been, we need to find them now so we can all find out what each other knows so we can figure out what we want to do." He licked his lips. "But we have to do it fast or we won't have be prepared." He shifted the backpack on his back. "And I'm sure as hell not going to be unprepared when everything starts to fall apart."

* * *

Zack sighed warily as he walked in to the room he and Cody had commandeered for their own. They hadn't found anything when they searched the State House. It was like everyone had suddenly disappeared on them. It just made him even more anxious than he already was. If they building had been deserted, there wasn't a lot of time left for them before Mother Nature started her attack and if they didn't get the Element Stones soon, all of them, they weren't going to win.

And they were all trying too hard to give up at that moment.

"Hey." Zack jumped when he heard the voice. He turned and rested a hand on his chest, calming down when he saw who it was. "So you managed to get the Element Stone of Fire," Riley said, crossing her arms over her chest as she walked towards him. "I heard you all tried to use to use it to find the other ones." She raised and lowered her shoulder. "It'd be too easy if that ended up working."

"How'd you-"

"We found the other group first," Riley explained. "And Julius and Maddie. Have they told you anything yet?"

"Not yet." Zack shook his head. "Yeah." He gave a tight-lipped smile. "Things are never easy." He frowned as he tapped his pocket, feeling the stone add weight to his already loose shorts. It just reminded him how long they had been going at the one goal and how much of a toll it had taken on their bodies. "It was hard to try and control to find the others…it felt…too powerful to try." He shook his head. "That's why I've been hesitating so much. I already killed a guy in the worst way imaginable…I didn't want the power to take me over."

"Power corrupts," Riley said, dropping her arms. She thought for a minute, turning her gaze to the ceiling. She then lowered it to Zack, giving a half smile. "I forgot who said that."

"I make a lot of mistakes; I don't want to make _that_ mistake." Zack cracked his knuckles. "I don't want to be _that_ guy. I want to…" he spread his arms wide, a gesture of helplessness. "I just want to sleep." He gave a weary laugh at the way the words sounded. Out of everything in the world he could ask for, at that moment, all he wanted to do was get a good night's sleep.

He would kill for those peaceful hours of slumber.

"You won't be corrupted, Zack," Riley said. "You wouldn't do those things." He had moved back. She moved to close the distance.

"How can you be so sure?" Zack raised an eyebrow.

"Well, two reasons." She held up her thumb. "First, it's not your character. Of course you felt a rush from the power. Then, you pushed it away. You didn't grab at it, you pushed it away."

"Don't be so sure," Zack muttered.

"And reason number two;" she held up her index finger before pointing at herself. "You have me."

Zack looked skeptical. "Do I?"

"Yes." Riley nodded.

That drained the anger and frustration from him like someone had pulled a plug. For a long moment he was lost, gazing into her eyes. She was very close. His heart shifted to a deeper rhythm that vibrated his whole body. There were just inches between them. He closed the distance by half, stopped.

"I can't kiss you when I know DalFang is glaring at me like that," Zack said as he motioned to the wolf who was sitting on the floor behind them.

Riley turned and looked at her guardian sharply; he rolled his eyes and pressed his muzzle to the floor, moving his paws over his eyes.

"How about now?"

* * *

**A/N: **And everything starts to come to an end. Also, in case you haven' heard (or follow us on twitter) I've got an idea for a third story in the series. It stems off an idea I've done in a SLOZAC/SLOD-Elemental story only once so I'm excited to try it again. When I'm done with this story I should have it up shortly after.

Anyway, I hope you guys liked this chapter; I've got more pairings and more fights happening in the next chapter. Also, Sydney's spirit guardians Kazuki and Kazuaki are based off of Kikyo's soul collectors in the manga/anime Inuyasha, in case anyone wondered.

Cheers,

-Riles


	33. The portal to Earth had been opened

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

* * *

Mother Nature smiled at the sound of the drums as they filled the air. She could sense the arboris attacking those that got in their way. Just enough to get them out of their way, not enough so that they would be mortally wounded, but enough so that they could get to the portal. She walked over to the balcony of her room and watched as the inhabitants of her kingdom fought in vain against the arboris. Their bodies, that were filled with vines and grass, of which she controlled, were no match for them. They didn't understand that they all needed this…her plan to succeed so that things could go back to normal.

The Element World and Earth used to be connected then as the years went by, it slowly separated itself, nearly going into extinction. Then everything turned around and started to come back full force, more guardians were being made. She was surprised to see that the bond between Earth and the Element world was still so strong, even though they weren't physically connected anymore. Then she saw how the Elementals were being treated. Like second class citizens, there one day and gone the next when the authorities would go after them. She relied on Geneva and Gattaca to try and close the gap between the two worlds and to make peace, but Gattaca allowed his powers to take him over.

Now it was all in her hands.

Mother Nature hummed to herself as she walked through her room and over to the book that rested on the stand. Inside was the history of Earth and the Element World all up until a few years recently. There were incantations and different maneuvers inside that helped her keep her strength up as well as helped her with enhancing her own powers. She all ready allowed Geneva to use it, to hone in on her powers, and a little bit of Gattaca, though she was a bit more hesitant with him. Who knew what he could do with his powers and how it would affected Earth. Earth was all ready falling apart as it was, now with her plan they would realize just how much Earth needed the balance with the Element world, not push it away.

Mother Nature turned her attention back towards the balcony when she heard the drums go silent and the sounds of fighting stop. She turned on her heel and went over to the balcony and rested her hands on the railing, smiling as she looked up at the sky. It used to be a rich blue, but now it looked like they had literally opened a portal to space. The sky was darkening and stars were swirling into what looked like a black hole. In the distance, you could see the sun and two other planets in the background. The vast emptiness of space was visible to them for the first time in a long time. Below her, the arboris started to jump high into the air, getting pulled in by the black hole

Mother Nature's smile widened as she tightened her grip on her book.

The portal to Earth had been opened.

* * *

**A/N: **I needed another chapter with Mother Nature, and just like with the chapter on Core, it had to be short. Kind of like a mini scene of the antagonist in a tv show/movie. I hope you guys liked it, things are really starting to heat up now.

The other reason that this is a short chapter is because I'm slowly not liking the way the story went as it got to this part and that's probably because I focused more on the questions/hints I wanted to show rather than completely focus on the way the story went. But that's also because I didn't know how it was going to end until recently, so that may have something to do with it too. Then again, I'm never completely happy with my writing, but I'm glad that you all are enjoying it. I'll have another chapter up soon, most likely this weekend, to make up for this short one.

Either way, thank you so much for the support and that you're continuing to read as I slowly creep along with this story.

Cheers,

-Riley


	34. They had it here the whole time

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

* * *

"So, you all decided to help us?" Diamond asked skeptically as he looked at Zack and Cody, who were standing in front of him. His eyes narrowed as he studied the two, studying them carefully. He motioned for Cody to close the door to the room that the three were in. "What made you finally make up your minds?"

"Let's just say that getting your leg half blown off can really put an impression on someone," Zack said dryly. He crossed his arms over his chest. "Before we answer your question, answer one of ours. Why did you try to take us by force before? Why didn't you all try to talk to Core or Christian to get them to take us in?"

Diamon was quietly for a long time. Finally, he lifted the shotgun that he was holding over his shoulder, using the strap attached to it to sling it across his shoulders. He turned to the window and looked out it. He turned back to Zack and Cody and lightly rested his hands on the shotgun.

"That's classified information," he said.

Cody snorted. "Having our lives threatened, though by now we're used to it, that's classified information?" He raised an eyebrow and looked over at Zack, who looked back at him, rolling his eyes. Cody turned back to Diamond, his eyes narrowing. "The way I see it, we're the ones that are in the position of power now." His hands started to glow blue. "If you catch my drift."

Diamond's upper lip curled and he moved his hands on the gun, to a position that he was about to fire it. Zack used his speed to move across the room and grab onto the gun, pulling it out of Diamond's grasp. He then moved back to Cody's side and held tightly onto the gun, his hands glowing red. Diamond moved towards them.

"Take a step and this gun will be melted in seconds," Zack warned.

Diamond gave him a look of contempt and took a step back, crossing his arms over his chest, towering over the twin boys. Zack smirked, his eyebrow twitching. He felt at home, being in the leader role once more. He was down on himself, questioning everything that they were doing and their success rate when Cody stepped up and took over. It had been a strange feeling to him, having someone else lead. But he wouldn't want anyone other than Cody to do it, knowing that while they had different ways of leading, they would both be effective.

"Now, the answer to our question is?" Cody placed his hands on his hips.

"We couldn't take that risk," Diamond said. "We couldn't know whether or not we had the right people and whether or not you would help. We've been following those that we found were Elementals for years, but we've found that you two were the strongest ones in Boston and that your friends were strong as well. But you two…"

"Yeah, yeah, we're the strongest elementals of our time," Zack interrupted. "We've heard it before."

"I don't think you're aware of the power that you have," Diamond continued. "That's why we've been watching you all for years. We run a tight operation and we couldn't risk the public finding out about everything. Ever since we were hacked-"

"Hacked?" Cody interrupted. His eyebrows lowered in confusion. "What d'you mean? The government has known about elementals this long?"

Diamond's eyebrows raised. "No one told you?" He asked. His lips slowly curled into a smile. "You must not know the whole story." He snorted. "Some friends you have."

"Explain!" Zack turned the shotgun towards Diamond.

"The way I see it, we don't have time for it." Diamond said, holding his hands up. He looked the twin boys, his eyes cold. "Things are going to go to hell sooner than you think. So if you're serious about helping us…helping the whole world, than we need to get started now and not a moment too late."

Cody frowned. He and Zack had slipped away from their friends, after they had gone to sleep, so they could see Diamond, so they could talk to him themselves. If anything, it was better that it was only the two of them that was there. If it was anyone else, then he would probably be too pressured to talk. It was hard enough to get to Diamond in the first place; there were SWAT members, soldiers, and people that were high up in the government that denied them access to Diamond. Apparently he was a respected soldier that worked for them as well as a spy, so he was heavily guarded. They had the upper hand at first, but now there was a definite power shift over to Diamond and that made him uneasy.

Zack must have sensed Cody's discomfort, because he raised the gun and leveled it at Diamond's heart. "Ok," he said finally. "We'll work together. No funny stuff. We need each other's help."

"All right." Diamond held out his hands to Zack. "Give me the gun and I'll help you." Zack studied Diamond for a long time and then slowly held it out to him. Diamond took the gun and slung it over his shoulder. "Go get your friends; I have something to show you."

Cody nodded and he and Zack raced out of Diamond's room and to their friends to wake them up. By the time they were done, Diamond was waiting out in the hallway, looking back and forth, his hands clutching his shotgun to his chest, his hand on the trigger fingers. His eyes were darting around, as if he was waiting for someone to jump out at him.

"There are a few people on patrol outside," Diamond said when he was sure that everyone was waiting patiently for him. "And there are others around here that are patrolling around some very important equipment."

"Like the weapons you all made me create?" Sydney asked.

"I'm sure there's something just as important as that in here," Reihu said slowly, his arms crossed over his chest. His green eyes looked over Diamond calculatedly. He flicked his brown hair out of his face, his nose twitching. "There wouldn't be a big deal about taking us to this place if there wasn't."

"The lion's right," Diamond said. He studied Reihu, who looked surprised. "Yes, I know everything about you. I know what your life was like before you were taken by Core to be tested on, before you became a part of Wingz Corp."

Reihu sucked in a sharp breath through his nose. His eyes narrowed and a growl came from deep in this chest. Rhuben reached out a hand and placed it on his shoulder. He looked at her and she shook her head, her eyes still on Diamond.

"Follow me." Diamond turned on his heel and started to walk down the hallway. The group of teenagers followed behind him. They were all silent as Diamond led them deep into the State House. Worried tension filled the air the longer that they walked. Diamond shifted his gun to his shoulder as he walked, continuing to take long, strong strides as he went.

"Do you really think that we can trust this guy?" Maddie asked. "We don't know anything about him."

"All we know is that he shot Zack's knee off at one point," Bailey agreed. She ran a hand through her hair. "And that he's been watching us in Boston for a while, even setting up traps for us. But now, we don't really have a choice on who we can and can't trust." She turned to Zack. "What do you think we should do?" She bit her lower lip. "I'm scared," she said honestly.

"What do you want me to do?" Zack asked, frowning. "You want me to go where everyone is and risk getting killed for being different since our pictures are being shown all over TV?" He adopted a mocking tone to his voice. "Or do you want to watch me stand around telling people they have nothing to fear but fear itself?"

Sydney laughed. "You remember." He stated. "You actually remembered something from school."

"Yeah. I remember. Roosevelt. The Great Depression. Sometimes, if I really strain my brain, I can even do multiplication."

"Defensive humor." Cody noted.

Diamond stopped at a door and swung it open.

The smell hit them hard.

"Oh man. What died in here?" Tapeworm said like it was a joke. The joke fell flat. Just inside the door, on the hardwood floor, lay a baby's pacifier.

They stared at it.

"I was kidding," Tapeworm said weakly.

"You should know by now that the things that we joke about are what usually happen," Crystal said. She crossed her arms over her chest as the group followed Diamond down the long corridor.

They finally reached a door and he pulled it open, stepping aside to let them in first. He shifted his grip on the gun in his hands before following them inside. The room was circular in shape and there were large glass cases in the middle of the walls lined the room. In the center of the room was what looked like a pedestal for jewelry.

Riley moved over to one of the glass cases and looked at the gem that was sitting inside it. It shone with every color of the rainbow though it was mostly purple. There cases around the room held the same kind of gems."What is that?" She asked.

"Those are the element stones," Sydney said, eyes wide with wonder. "They had it here the whole time."

* * *

**A/N: **I'm sorry this chapter is short too. Though I do have an idea for a possible sequel for this story, just like what's happened when I started Mystic Melody, over time, I get back into the Suite Life fandom just as easily as I lose interest in it. And I know it's a direct relation to the fact that the show is over and Dylan and Cole are studying rather than acting (not that I'm knocking a college education). So, I'm getting chapters done as soon as I can and though I'm not always happy with them, I'm not giving up on this story and I'm going to see it to the end.

So the way I see it, this story is going to be a bit over 40 chapters long, as I still have some things that I touched on, but haven't really gotten to/showed/explained yet so things will be drawn out a bit, but battles are starting soon.

That being said, even though it was a bit longer than the last one, I hope you guys liked this chapter.

Cheers,

-Riles


	35. They had arrived

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

* * *

Light.

Darkness.

Opposite sides of a coin, innocent and demonic, purity and tainted. One half shrouded in frightening darkness and evil, the other with brilliance and light. One half seemed always to be in the blackness of night, the brightest it ever became was like the time in the night just before the moon showed its presence. The other was innocent, normal, and bright, the moon always showered the earth with its gentle' silver glow, while the sun always beat down upon the people and ground with its brightness and heat.

Mother Nature's son and daughter were the ones that resided over those elements and she resided over them. They didn't see the way that the two worlds should be, back together, coinciding with each other. They didn't understand how the elementals used to be treated as opposed to how they were being treated now. They didn't understand that even though they were friends with some of the stronger ones, no one knew how the two worlds were supposed to be.

Mother Nature closed her eyes as she continued through the portal that bonded the two worlds together. She could feel the powerful energy that she had coursing through her body. She had been waiting for this moment for a long time. She had been waiting for the perfect moment for the element world to be shown once more. Nothing like this should have been hidden, they should have been treated equally over the years and now they were finally going to be able to prove that.

The portal opened up in front of them and soon they were hovering over the Boston skyline. Those that were still in Boston went on their merry way below them, completely oblivious to the battle that raged on between their world and the Element world.

Mother Nature smiled as the arboris fell over Boston and started to attack whoever got in their way.

They had arrived…

* * *

**A/N: **Yeah, yeah, I've said so many times sorry about having a short chapter; I don't need to say it again. But considering I've finished my junior year of college today and have all of the rest of the time until the next year starts, I'm going to try hard to get this story done. I know how I want it to end, it's just getting it to end is the problem. As you can see, it's getting close to ending.

Plus I still have a sequel I want to do and I'm going to do it, but I want to finish this one first. So, yeah, short chapter, but think of it as back and forth scenes in a movie showing both sides. I'll update again soon and I promise it won't take as long to get it done.

Cheers,

-Riles


	36. Try and stop me

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

* * *

"So if the stones were here the whole time, how could we not have known it before?" Tapeworm lightly ran his fingertips over the glass casing of one of the stones, studying it closely. He turned to Zack, who had his hands on his knees and was peering into another case, his eyes moving over it steadily. "Does the one that you have look like these?"

Zack nodded. "Exactly like them, we definitely have one of the element stones." He stood up straight, scratching the back of his neck, suddenly looking very weary. "And that can be a good or a bad thing."

"We had found the Element Stones and transported them here," Diamond said from where he was standing in the corner, his arms crossed over his chest, a disapproving frown on his face. "We had planned on using them to lure you guys in a different way, but things didn't go the way we planned. But, it's like you already heard, we needed your help because of what we figured out was coming soon."

"That Mother Nature was going to try and take over the world or whatever it is that these people always want," Bailey agreed. "She even tried to take over Tapeworm at some points, because she can directly tap into his element."

"Really?" Rhuben looked interested. "What happened?"

"She used Ursa at the beginning to take him over and actually did a good job with it, but then Max went into his dreams and took him to the Element world to show him what was going on over there, " Bailey explained. "And apparently it's getting really bad. Mother Nature has started to attack the people that were getting in their way of coming here, even if they were completely innocent."

"I wouldn't put it past her," Sydney remarked. "People like this are very…set in what they want to do, and that's just putting it lightly. Remember Zhane?"

"Yeah, but that was when he was under the influence of Gattaca, so you really can't blame him for that one," Riley said. She shrugged. "Well, you can blame Gattaca, but you can't blame Zhane."

"Wanna bet?" Patrick quipped. "If you try hard enough you can expel the power that darkness is trying to put on you. I mean, that's what Rhu has to do every time she uses too much of her power and she does it fine." He let out a loud sigh, turning to look at another display case of stones. "But, who knows what would have happened if he used one of these."

All of a sudden there was a loud explosion and the room rocked around them. The lights flickered and dimmed, but didn't' go out. Dust started to fall into the room. There was another explosion and cracking could be heard from above. The guys moved quickly and covered the girls' heads, crouching low to the floor, just in case it started to cave in.

Once the explosions died down, everyone ran outside of the State House and was met with the most horrifying sight they had ever seen.

The sky had opened up in a large portal and something was falling out of the sky towards them. They started to attack anything that would get in their way, cars, buildings, trees, even innocent people. The things that were attacking had a light green hue and had vines coming out of their hands whenever they attacked something.

"Oh boy," Julius breathed.

"My thought's exactly" Maddie agreed.

"That's what Mother Nature used to attack the people in the Element world," Tapeworm explained, licking his lips. "They're called arboris, and as you can see they resemble humans, but they're completely made out of earth, grass, and vines." He clenched his hands into fists as he looked around.

The destruction that they were creating was just as bad as seeing all of them in the first place. They were doing everything they could to instill fear in those that were around them. Before they could move a bunch of arboris leapt towards them and started to attack. The group of teenagers quickly spread out for more space and started to attack back. But as soon as they were able to get one or two of the arboris off of them, more and more would come at them in waves, easily over powering them.

"Cascade Crush!" Cody blasted a jet stream of water towards a couple of arboris and watched as it blasted them back away from him. He twisted to the side and punched another one in the stomach then grabbed onto his wrist, flipping it onto the ground. He let out a cry of pain and a red slash appeared on his arm, and arbori had used a vine to cut him. "This is going to be harder than I thought."

"Especially since they keep coming," Reihu agreed. He jumped high into the air, did a flip, and transformed into his lion form. When he landed on the ground, he roared loudly and charged forward, slashing at an arbori that had snuck up on Rhuben's blind side.

Zack let out a grunt of pain as he was hit across the face, the force of the hit spinning him to the ground. He groaned, trying to get back to his fee. They were a lot stronger than he originally thought, but that didn't mean that he was going to sit back and watch as his home was completely taken over. And if that meant that they had to reveal their powers to the rest of the world and be experimented on for the rest of life, then so be it. Zack painfully pushed himself back to his feet and looked around, trying to figure out a plan. He thought quickly before starting to dish out orders.

"Ok, what we need to do is see if we can keep these things from coming in," he said quickly, pointing towards the sky where more and more arboris continued to pour onto Earth. "The more that we can keep from reaching Boston, the better things will be for us. So whoever can go up to the sky should do that, everyone else should stay down here and try to fight off as many of these as we can." He wiped sweat off of his forehead, turning to Maddie. "Maddie, we need you to be around to make sure that we can get healed whenever we need it, so try to stay out of the fight as much as you can." She nodded. "Patrick, Noah, Cody, and Sydney you try to stop those up there. Rhuben, Bailey, and Reihu, you three go see if you can find Mother Nature. Crys, Tapeworm, Riles, and I will stay here and fight those on the ground."

"What do you want me to do?"

Zack turned around to see Diamond standing behind him an arsenal of weapons hanging off of his body. Zack gave him a grim smile. "Whatever you can do to help."

Diamond smiled and pulled a silver pistol out from one of his pockets and started to load it with a plethora of colorful bullets. He clicked the chamber into place and grabbed onto another pistol and started to do the same thing. "But I've got something that might help you guys." He pulled a drawstring bag out of his pocket and opened it. A bright light radiated from inside.

"It's the Element stones," Aaron said.

As they watched, the stones continued to glow a bright color as they lifted out of the bag and into the air, forming a small circle. There was an open spot. Zack took the red element stone out of his pocket and held it up. The stone shone a bright red and completed the circle.

"With the element stones, we'll be able to gain more power to use against Mother Nature," Aaron continued. "I heard dad talking about it once, they enhance the power of whoever has it, but…I also heard that they're able to unleash a new sense of power if used the right way."

"That's helpful," Tapeworm said. He looked around, suddenly noticing that they weren't being attacked. It looked like the arboris were backing away from them, as if terrified of the Element Stones. "Looks like it's something that we can really use, though."

"Might as well try," Bailey encouraged. "You never know what could happen." She closed her eyes and a moment later, Geneva and Gattaca appeared at her sides. "These two can help try to close the portal, I'm sure that they can do it if their mother was able to open it."

"We can't guarantee anything, but we'll do our best," Geneva said.

Gattaca nodded.

Zack raised a finger to his mouth and started to chew on the nail. There were so many things to decide; they had the current reprieve of being attacked, they were going to be showing their real identities to the whole world, and then there was the possibility of not being able to control the powers of the element stones as they took it into their possession.

"You have to try it," Noah insisted. "If not we'll probably get beaten too easily, we're outnumbered."

Zack closed his eyes. "Ok, ok!" He ran a hand through his hair.

"There seems to be a stone for fire, water, darkness, thunder, light, and nature…which I would assume that the stones come for the most common elements," Cody said as he moved towards the light blue stone. He waited as Zack, Rhuben, Patrick, and Tapeworm stepped forward behind the stones that represented their element. "Ready?"

They nodded.

Each of them reached out and took the stone in their hand, letting the light element stone remain. It stopped shinning and started to drop to the ground, but Aaron grabbed onto it and gently cradled it in his hands, his sightless eyes trained on the spectacle in front of him.

The stones glowed even brighter than before, the color reflecting in everyone's eyes. Zack was used to the rush of power, as he had held onto the stone before, but the sense of strength still overwhelmed him. The stones continued to react in a weird way, as Zack's and Cody's stones started to diminish in brightness, the other stones continued to glow brighter and brighter. Tapeworm, Rhuben, and Patrick extended their arms and the stones brightness turned into a beam of energy that combined into a wave of purple, green, and yellow. That beam then dispersed into Zack's and Cody's stones, causing the fire and water stones to shine so brightly that everyone had to cover their eyes.

There was a distinct cracking sound as the red and blue light completely engulfed them.

When the light faded, everyone could see that the darkness, nature, and thunder stones were broken, resting in pieces in their respective owners' hands. They had transferred the power from those stones into Zack's and Cody's, giving them as much power as possible.

"Whoa," Cody said, feeling the energy wash over him. His eyes were glowing a bright blue. He looked over at Zack and saw that his eyes were glowing a red color. He took a deep breath and dropped the stone into his pocket, turning to his brother. "You ready?"

Zack gave a determined smile. "Try and stop me."

* * *

**A/N: **Alright, so, just so you all know, the rest of the story is going to focus more on Zack, Cody, and Bailey, though there will still be stuff with the other characters as well. I hope that you guys liked what I ended up doing with the element stones; Rhu, Crys, and I talked it over and we said that what happened (with them breaking and everything) would make a lot of sense. Plus it brings up a better idea of what to do with the two of them in the sequel.

Uh, if you want to get an idea of the portal that Mother Nature uses, think of the portal that Loki opened for the Chitauri army to come through in Avengers. Which, coincidentally, I watched last night and got inspiration to update.

Sorry for the wait, I hope you enjoyed it.

Cheers,

-Riles


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